a Fatwa for El Hadari?

The El Hadary saga is far from being over.
The Egyptian goalkeeper, African Champion with his national team, is once more at the centre of controversy following his move from Al Ahly to FC Sion of Switzerland.

One of the main sponsors of FC Sion is Giroud Vins (Giroud Wine) and being a Valaisan by birth I can affirm that wine is everything to the folks up there, whether they’re from Sion, Sierre or Martigny.

The quality of Valais wine (for example the red wine of Salgesch) is very well-known and together with Cheese (like Valser) it is the main product of this mountainous Swiss canton.

No surprise then, that FC Sion has Giroud Vins as its main sponsor.

A lawyer by the name of Tarek Abdel Qader has accused El Hadary of encouraging a libertine and sinful attitude. The Egyptian lawyer is concerned that the words (given that Egyptians speak French which is probably far from being the case) might encourage the Egyptian youth to drink wine (highly prohibited in the Muslim world), since El Hadary is not far from being a national hero (or at least, was, before the controversial move to Switzerland – for more information read the article I wrote a couple of months ago).

As if this were not enough some Al Ahly members have called upon a fatwa for the goalkeeper (that being a sort of death sentence).
The goalkeeper now risks being sentenced to jail.

On one hand what did the Egyptians expect? That FC Sion cancelled the contract with its biggest sponsor (imagine the financial loss)?

El Hadary is certainly not encouraging alcohol abuse (Swiss laws are very harsh on that matter, so dear Egyptian friends don’t consider us a country of drunkards) and I’m sure that if he’s a true Muslim-at-heart, he’s not even had one sip of the excellent Valais wine.

Which is a pity.
But then again he should respect his national and cultural tradition.

Enjoy a video of El Hadary’s first game for Sion: