Al Ahly SC
Al-Ahly Sporting Club, commonly known as Al-Ahly, which in English means The National, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest tier in the Egyptian football league system. The club is renowned for its consistent success at both domestic and continental levels, regularly contending in CAF tournaments.
Founded on 24 April 1907 by Omar Lotfy and cofounded by Yahia Baher, Al-Ahly has a record of 45 Egyptian Premier League titles, 39 Egypt Cup titles and 16 Egyptian Super Cups. Al-Ahly is the most successful club in Africa.
In international competitions, Al-Ahly has won a record 12 CAF Champions League titles, 1 CAF Confederation Cup, a record of 8 CAF Super Cups, a record of 4 African Cup Winners' Cups, 1 Afro-Asian Club Championship, 1 Arab Club Champions Cup, 1 Arab Cup Winners' Cup, a record of 2 Arab Super Cups, and has won 4 bronze medals in the FIFA Club World Cup, With 26 continental titles, Al Ahly was voted by CAF as the African club of the 20th century. Al-Ahly became the most valuable sports club in Africa, with a market value of €30 million as of the 2023–24 season.
History
Establishment and start of the club
The idea of establishing Al-Ahly came in the first 10 years of the 20th century and was firstly raised by Omar Lotfy, who was a student in the Egyptian Law School during his presidency of the High School Students Club. The establishment of a club for high school students was for political reasons along with the students needing a sports club for them to gather for leisure and exercise.He discussed the idea of establishing the club with a group of friends who were enthusiastic about it and in 1907, Al Ahly was established.
File:Talaat Harb.jpg|thumb|upright|Talaat Harb, president of the Bank of Egypt, contributed £E100 to the establishment of the club.
The club was first headed by Alfred Mitchell-Innes, who was a British advisor to the Ministry of Finance at the time. He was the first head to facilitate financial support for the club. An official meeting of the club's board was held on 24 April 1907. The committee met at 5:30 pm in the house of Mitchell-Innes in Giza under his chairmanship and the membership of Idris Ragheb Bey, Ismael Seri Pasha, Amin Sami Pasha, Omar Lotfi Bek and Mohamed Effendi Sherif as secretary.
After the establishment of the club was approved, the main building was designed by architect Ismail Seri, and revised by Mitchell-Innes. A civil company on the behalf of Al Ahly Sports Club was established. Shares of the company were worth £E5 each, and it was the goal of the club when it was established to raise £E5,000. Only £E3,165 were collected over a year which was not enough to fund the establishment. This forced the club to borrow £E1,000 from the National Bank of Egypt in March 1908. Talaat Harb, the president of the Bank of Egypt, contributed £E100 to the establishment of the club.
The first honorary president of the club was the Minister of Education Saad Zaghloul. The name of Al Ahly Sporting Club was suggested by Amine Samy Amin, who suggested that the name is similar to the word "National" in Egyptian Arabic. On 2 April 1908, Mitchell-Innes stepped down as president of the club. Aziz Ezzat was appointed as the new president and became the first Egyptian president of Al Ahly. The official opening ceremony of the club was held in its main building on 26 February 1909.
The game of football was not one of the goals of the founders of Al Ahly SC, but rather to open its doors to students of high schools to meet and practice political dialogues. However, the graduates of high schools who were members of the club developed a passion with football, which prompted the club to build the first stadium in 1909. At the time, they called it Al-Hawsh; colloquially meaning the courtyard in Egyptian Arabic. The stadium was improved over the years, eventually becoming Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium.
The first official football team was established in 1911. The team was primary and secondary school players who played football in Al-Hawsh. The names of the first players of Al Ahly were as follows: Hussein Hegazi, Abdel Fattah Taher, Fouad Darwish, Hussein Mansour, and Ibrahim Fahmy.
In 1915, Al-Ahly made tours to Egyptian cities to play matches and to spread football and its culture. Al Ahly played in Alexandria, Port Said, Assiut, and Ismailia. The team, led by Hussein Hegazi, faced many teams, including foreign teams belonging to the British Army, which increased the popularity of Al Ahly and the new game in Egypt.
Ahly contributed with Zamalek SC, El Sekka El Hadid SC in the formation of the first football team of Egypt to participate in the 1920 Olympic Games. The club also contributed to the establishment of the Egyptian Football Association.
First titles (1918–1948)
After Al-Ahly's refusal to compete with British clubs in the Sultan Hussein Cup in its first edition in 1917, the club's management decided to participate in the 1918 championship as a sign of resistance and to display Egyptian presence in the sport.In 1923, Al-Ahly won their first Sultan Hussain Cup after beating the defending champion Zamalek SC, with them winning six other titles to be the record holder in the number of wins until the last edition in 1938.
They also played an active role in the establishment of the Egyptian Tennis Federation.
The club followed their first win of the Sultan Hussain Cup with the King Farouk Cup in 1924, defeating El Sekka El Hadid 4–1 in the final. The man of the match was Mokhtar Eltetsh, who scored two goals.
In the summer of 1929, Al-Ahly's football went on a tour where the team traveled to face several European clubs, such as Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray in Turkey and BFC Preussen, 1860 Munich and Schalke in Germany. The tour ended with Al Ahly playing the last two games in Bulgaria against Levski Sofia and Slavia Sofia. In November 1930, Al-Ahly defeated rival Zamalek 4–0 in a match in the Cairo League. In that game, Mokhtar El Tetsh was the first player to score a hat trick in the Cairo Derby. At the end of the 1936–1937 season, Al Ahly managed to win the league in the last round by defeating Zamalek 4–1, finishing three points ahead of their rivals. The club won the King Farouk Cup with a 3–2 victory over El Sekka El Hadid SC.
In 1938, Al Ahly won the last version of the Sultan Hussein Cup, with a 1–0 victory over Al Masry in the final match. The club won the Cairo League, again in the last round, with a 5–1 victory over the second placed Zamalek.
The team traveled to Mandatory Palestine in 1943 on a 23-day tour, headed by Mokhtar El Tetsh, to play several matches with Arab teams to support Palestine against the Zionists.
The decision had been made despite the refusal of the president of the Egyptian Football Association Haider Pasha, due to the pressure from the British position against the Palestinian issue.
File: النادي الأهلي في تل أبيب 28 أغسطس 1943.jpg|thumb|left|upright|300px|Al Ahly team in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Mandatory Palestine
Dominating the league (1948–1967)
In the first edition of the Egyptian Premier League, held for the first time in 1948, Al Ahly won the first match 5–0 against Greek Alexandria. Ahmed Makkawi scored the first goal for Al Ahly in the history of the competition in the 11th minute. The first team to represent Al Ahly in the competition was composed of: Kamal Hamed – Abdulaziz Hamami – Muhammad Abu Habajah – Abdel Moneim Shatara – Sayed Othman – Hilmi Abu Al-Moaty – Fouad Sedki – Muhammad Lheta – Ahmed Mekkawi – Saleh Selim – Fathi Khattab. Mokhatr al Tetsh led Al Ahly to win the first championship in the club's history as a player and also led the club to win the first league in the club's history as a manager, achieving a double of the league and the cup for the first time after defeating Zamalek 3–1 in the 1949 King Farouk Cup final. Toto, Hussein Madkour and Fathi Khattab scored for Al Ahly.The 1949–50 season was a historical superiority for Al Ahly, winning all the local championships. Al Ahly won the Egyptian Premier League after a tie in points with Tersana. The league winner was decided by a play-off match with Al Ahly winning the match against Tersana 2–1. The club also won the Cairo League, one point ahead of Tersana. In the Egypt Cup, Al Ahly defeated Tersana in the final 6–0.
In the 1950–51 season, Al Ahly won the league for the third consecutive time despite the strong competition with Zamalek, as well as a difficult victory in the King Farouk Cup final against El Sekka El Hadid. Following the dethroning of King Farouk in the 1952 revolution, Ahly appointed Gamal Abdel Nasser as club honorary president.
In the 1951–52 season, the league championship was cancelled due to the Egyptian revolution that year, and to allow the national team to prepare for the 1952 Summer Olympics. However, the Egypt Cup and the Cairo League were played as normal. Al Ahly lost both tournaments to Zamalek. The league returned the following season and Al Ahly won the league for the fourth time in a row, with a narrow two-point lead ahead of Zamalek, after the two teams tied 2–2 in the last round. In the cup, Al Ahly managed to defeat the defending champions Zamalek 4–1 in the final.
In the 1953–54 season, Al Ahly won their fifth consecutive and fifth overall Egyptian Premier League title in the club's history. In the cup, they were eliminated from the semi-final by Al Masry.
In the 1956–57 season, the number of teams increased to 14 teams, and Al Ahly managed to win the league nine points ahead of Zamalek, to win the seventh title in a row. It was the first time that the team had reached 40 points. Al Ahly won the 1958–59 league championship for the ninth time in a row. El-Sayed El-Dhizui became the first Al Ahly player to be the top goal scorer in the league. The team scored 55 goals in just 18 games that season, more than 20 goals from their nearest competitors.
After losing the league for the first time since the start of the competition in the 1959–60 season, Al Ahly won the league for the tenth time in the club's history, in the 1960–61 season. The club won the Egypt Cup after defeating El Qanah 5–0, with Mimi El-Sherbini scoring two goals.
File:Nour_El-Dali_-_Saleh_Selim.jpg|alt=Nour El-Dali – Saleh Selim|thumb|left|upright|180px|Al Ahly's captain Saleh Selim shaking hands with Zamalek's captain Nour El-Dali and referee preparing to make a coin toss before playing the 1959 Egypt Cup final