The Africa Cup of Nations(AFCON) is set to kick off in Egypt on Friday against a backdrop of terror attacks and only days after the death of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in the country’s court during trial.
Egypt last welcomed African teams in 2006, before the country’s political landscape was rocked by the Arab Spring of 2011.
This time again, Egypt plays host after Morsi, its first democratically elected president, was buried on Tuesday following the ousted and jailed leader’s collapse in court and death the previous day.
Speaking in an interview on Happy FM’s ‘Anopa Bosuo Sports’ with Ohene Brenya Bampoe, Moses Foh-Amoaning, a lawyer and member of the Commission of Enquiry that probed Ghana’s participation in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has predicted that Morsi’s death will affect the AFCON.
“The death of Mohamed Morsi who was the first elected president of Egypt trust me will affect the cup of nations.
According to him, “Mohamed Morsi belongs to Moslem brotherhood and the Moslem brotherhood is radical Islamic group in Egypt.”
He however added that, “Egyptian national team has Moslem brotherhood members as part of the team, most of the players are Moslem brotherhood members, if you could remember somewhere around 2010, 2011 even though they won the AFCON in 2013, they did not qualify for the world cup this is because the National team at then was divided.”
“Now the death of Morsi is being interpret as murder by the Moslem brotherhood, They are saying the current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, deliberately murdered Morsi, so they are not happy,” he added.
Foh-Amoaning revealed that because of the way and manner the late Morsi died he [Foh-Amoaning] can affirm that the Egyptian national team is divided into two factions “I can assure you that the Egyptian national team is divided into two but we should only pray that it will not fill them to create problems during the tournament.”
By: Joseph Nii Ankrah