Azmy Megahed, director of the Egyptian Football Association's (EFA) information department, has played down a controversy surrounding his son, Georgian FC Zugdidi footballer Amir Azmy, who wore a T-shirt celebrating Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The footballer wore a T-shirt with Sisi's picture on it, which some are comparing to an incident in which Ahly striker Ahmed Abdel Zaher threw out a Rabaa sign after scoring against Orlando Pirates.
"My son wore this shirt during team training, not in an official match," Megahed told privately-owned satellite channel, Dream, on Tuesday. "He didn't mean anything by it, he was just celebrating the Egyptian army and the respectable police."
"Abdel Zaher, on the other hand, mixed sports with politics and religion," he argued, accusing the player of killing Egypt's delight at winning the Champions League against the South African team.
Abdel Zaher raised the four-fingered salute, which refers to a sit-in staged by supporters of one-time Islamist President Mohamed Morsy at Rabaa al-Adaweya this summer, after scoring against the South African side in the Champions League final.
Abdel Zaher is the third athlete to raise the controversial slogan to the public, after Kung Fu athletes Mohammed Youssef and Hesham Abdel Hamid.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
