Egypt's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations campaign couldn't produce a worse incident.
While the Pharaohs' ability is not convincing on the pitch, except for one half against the Democratic Republic of Congo, the story that took over the media in the past 48 hours is not connected to football.
With hundreds of evidences (screenshots, videos) by multiple women on social media, it has been revealed that the national team player, Amr Warda, is verbally bullying, harassing and acting aggressively towards women online.
The materials that have been published by different girls on Instagram and Twitter made the Egyptian Football Association, together with national team management to decide and expel Warda from the team for the rest of the tournament.
The story was the top trend in Egypt for a couple of days, forming some kind of a local version for the #MeToo campaign.
Even though the decision to suspend Warda was received with great support from Egyptian fans and public, the Egyptian national team players, represented by Mohamed Salah and Ahmed El-Mohamady, asked the FA to forgive Warda and bring him back on the squad, as he is an essential player in the Egyptian rotation on their quest to win the cup.
Salah even expressed his views on the matter in these tweets:
After he published a written and filmed apology, Warda was returned to the squad by the FA, regarding the players' request. The FA announced that their decision is to suspend him for the group stage, and he could even play again in the knockout stage.
At this moment, one must ask, what is the message female and young ladies in Egypt can grab from this story. That's definitely not a good look.
It has been informed that Warda has a history of harassments. In 2017, Portuguese club CD Feriense terminated Warda's contract over claims that he sexually harassed the wives of two of his team-mates. His spell in the team went on for only three days, and he was sent back to Greece, and joined his current Greek club Atromitos.
Everybody deserves a second chance, but in this case, Egypt's players should have asked themselves, if the timing, the way and most importantly - the message - were correct in this case, to bring back a player who was acting in such an unacceptable way.