JS Kabylie
Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, known as JS Kabylie or simply JSK, is an Algerian professional football club based in Tizi Ouzou, Kabylia. The club is named after the cultural, natural and historical region that is home to the Kabyle Berber people speaking Kabyle at the bottom of the club's logo is the most famous Amazigh. The club was founded in 1946 and its colours are yellow and green. The club currently plays in the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1, the top tier of Algerian football. Since the start of the 2024–25 season, the club has played its home games at the Hocine Aït Ahmed Stadium. Previously, the club had played at Tizi Ouzou's 1 November 1954 Stadium from 1978 to 2024.
JS Kabylie is the most successful Algerian club at the national level, having won the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title a record 14 times, the Algerian Cup five times, the Algerian League Cup once and the Algerian Super Cup once. At the national level, JS Kabylie also won an unofficial title of the once. It is the only Algerian club to have never been relegated to the second division, with a record of 57 consecutive seasons, at the highest level, since the 1969–70 season.
JS Kabylie is also the most successful Algerian club at the African level, having won a number of African titles, including the most prestigious African competition CAF Champions League twice in 1981 and 1990, the African Cup Winners' Cup once in 1995, the CAF Cup a record three times in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and the first ever African Super Cup once in 1982 during the.
JS Kabylie has a total of 28 major trophies recognized by FIFA.
At the African level, JS Kabylie is the most successful Algerian club, but also the one that has played the most matches in African competitions and one of only two African clubs to have won all three different African competitions before 2005. It is also one of only two clubs in Africa to hold the record of winning an African competition three times in a row. According to CAF, these performances rank the club among the 10 best African clubs of the 20th century occupying 9th place. The IFFHS ranks JS Kabylie in Africa in 8th place during the 20th century and in 7th place during the first decade of the 21st century. JS Kabylie is elected by the IFFHS as the best Algerian club of the 20th century. In Africa, JS Kabylie is the 6th most successful club, with seven African titles.
JS Kabylie whose popularity extends well beyond the borders of the Tizi Ouzou Province, is fervently supported throughout the Kabylia region. Its history and colours are very present in the popular imagination and Kabyle folklore. They participate in a symbolism transcending the sporting domain and are often claimed as an identity marker of the Berber cause. Following numerous events that took place in Kabylia in the 1980s, and because the name of this club includes the word « Kabylie », it has since been considered by some regionalists as being the torchbearer of politico-cultural ideas of the Kabylia region and the symbol of its Kabyle cultural identity struggle.
Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie had several names during its existence such as the Jamiat Sari' Kawkabi from 1974 to 1977, the Jeunesse Électronique de Tizi-Ouzou, with the abbreviation JET from 1977 to 1987 and also covered a short period of two calendar years between 1987 and 1989, the name of Jeunesse Sportive de Tizi-Ouzou, with the abbreviation JST.
History
The club's early beginnings (1929–1946)
In the 1920s, young Kabyles who played football in the streets of the city of Tizi Ouzou organized a mini inter-district championship under the leadership of Ahmed Astouati. Each district of the upper town had its team; participated in this tournament, young people from the districts of Aïn Hallouf, Tazegourt, Ihammoutène, Zellal and Tabnahlit. It is from these neighborhoods that a group of young people will emerge who aspired to the creation of a football club different from the Olympique de Tizi-Ouzou, a club created by the Europeans of Algeria. These young people formed a neighborhood selection made up of brothers Mesbahi Saïd and Ramdane, brothers Sebti Samir and Sofiane and brothers Rafaï Mohamed and Hocine, Harchaoui Omar, Zemirli Saïd, Souibes Rabah, Loukab Mohamed, Mekacher Amar, Boussad Ouamar, Mammar Mohamed, cousins Hammoutène Abderezak and Mohamed, Belhadj Khelifa, Chabaraka Ahmed, Assas Hocine, grouped around their dean Chikhaoui Mohamed Seghir then aged twenty, to create a sports society in order to participate in an official championship.The Rapid Club de Tizi-Ouzou
File:RC Tizi Ouzou.jpg|thumb|left|260px|The Rapid Club de Tizi-Ouzou team, in 1929.
From left to right :
Standing Zemirli - Slammour - Harchaoui - Hamoutène - Belhadj - Chikhaoui - Souibes
Sat Allouche - Mesbahi - Louggar - Rafaï - Rafaï - Mekacher
From the beginning of the year 1929 and after many difficulties, the young Kabyles who had come together to form a sports association, managed to finalize and file their status. The sports company called Rapid Club de Tizi-Ouzou was born, the name of the association was borrowed from the Austrian club Rapid Vienna, as well as its colours: green and white. The declaration of the association also appears in the JORF. For the costs of commitments to the championship of the 1929–30 season and the purchase of equipment, each member brought back his own equipment. As for the jerseys and the expenses, they were the object of a quest from their parents, allies and friends and from certain notables of the village. The football was bought and graciously donated by Chikhaoui Mohamed Seghir, the team's captain.
The first season was very difficult not from the point of view of sporting results but from a financial point of view. The money was sorely lacking, it was then that they were aware that they could not get by on their own; they got in touch with personalities of the city able to bring them a financial help and a representativeness near the administration to have a possible subsidy and certain facilities of access to the municipal stadium for the drives. This is how they entrusted their association to Nouri Mohamed Saïd elected president and to Derridj Idir and Kezzoul Ahmed in charge of finance and administration. The functions of assessor are occupied by the players themselves responsible in particular for the equipment and the organization. Belhadj Khelifa and Chikhaoui Mohamed Seghir are in charge of the technical aspect.
The 1930–31 season was full of promise, the sporting results were encouraging; the young people and the association were starting to be talked about in the region. This beginning of notoriety aroused some questions among the leaders of the OTO who were not long in manifesting themselves during the 1931–32 season. They approached the leaders of the RCTO in order to integrate them into the ranks of the OTO while showing interest in certain players. Finally no longer being able to support themselves with their derisory means, the young people of the Rapid could not ensure the start of the 1932–33 season and had to forfeit and dissolve their sports society. Faced with the insistence and threats of the leaders of the OTO and some local elected officials, some players joined the OTO, others the JSII, while others again put an end to their adventure.
The attempt of Sidi Saïd Hanafi
File:Maître Sidi Said Hanafi.jpg|thumb|220px|Sidi Saïd Hanafi, criminal lawyer at the court and initiator of the project to create an indigenous football club in the city of Tizi Ouzou.
It was not until 10 years after the dissolution of the Rapid Club de Tizi-Ouzou that there was talk of the creation of an indigenous football club in the city of Tizi Ouzou, following the installation of Master Sidi Saïd Hanafi, criminal lawyer, on Saint-Eustache Street in 1942. His meeting with some nationalist personalities who gathered at the bookseller Keddache Youcef, made it possible to relaunch the project of creation of a sports society, called Association Sportive de Kabylie representing the whole region, replacing the former Rapid society which had lacked the support of its leaders. The idea began to take shape and Sidi Saïd Hanafi was given the task of initiating the procedure for creating the sports company by preparing the statutes and compiling an approval file. Former Rapid and OTO players were approached to be part of the new company, but following the death of Sidi Hanafi in July 1943, the project fell apart and stopped.
The project was taken over by a group of former Olympique de Tizi-Ouzou players, who attempted to complete the affiliation arrangements.
The massacres of Setif, Guelma and Kherrata jeopardized this project: less than a week later, on, an order was promulgated in which a prohibition on any Muslim from creating an association and to come together is imposed. Indeed, nationalist militants from the Comité d'action révolutionnaire nord-africain had infiltrated the various cultural and sports associations to promote the idea of independence, following the events that occurred in Setif. The fear was then that it would immediately be assimilated to a plot aimed at state security. Finally, in order to calm things down, on the ban on Muslims creating associations was lifted: with this gesture the French administration tried to restore order and ease tensions within the country.
The creation of the Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie
During the year 1946, the union section of the CGT of Tizi Ouzou launched the project to create a football club in the corporate setting. Alongside this initiative, some young natives from the same locality who practice this sport and are interested in the project, jump at the chance to speed up the process. Contacts were very quickly made and a few meetings were thus organized at the CGT headquarters, chaired by Hamouda Abbas with the sponsorship of Saadi Ouakli, a retired former school principal and president of the district's veterans. The latter, well known and respected by the colonial authorities, was often called upon to chair conciliation meetings or meetings of civil society on the right or on the left. The colonial authorities did not lend too much interest to these groupings for union purposes and the creation of a football team within the corporative framework did not risk any inconvenience.
At the end of the last meeting held at the headquarters of the CGT with the aim of finalizing the project by preparing the statutes with the constitution of the first general assembly of the club, a questioning of the objective of the creation of the new sports society divided the leaders and the young people. Indeed, the latter proposed rather the affiliation of the future company to the FFFA instead of making it a corporate team. This discrepancy angered Abbas, who threatened to withdraw and at the same time to deprive the future sports association of its domicile as well as the elements of the CGT. Nevertheless, after a final debate, he invited all the actors present to finalize the preparation of the constitution of the sports society and to leave the choice of the objective to the members of the assembly.
On 29 July 1946, the session is chaired by Abbas Hamouda, member of the CGT.
Were present :
- CGT members: Abbas Hamouda, Hamoutène Rabah, Oumerzouk Mohamed, Saadi Ouakli;
- members of civil society: Mohamed Seghir known as Dris, Rezki Bournane known as Diouani, Mohamed Saïd Nouri, Khelifa Belhadj, Ali Benslama, Boualem Iratni, Ramdane Kara, Amar Berdjani, Saïd Amirouche, Saïd Zemirli, Rezki Belhocine, Saïd Tabti, Meziane Aouchiche, Saïd Cherdioui, Mohamed Hamouche, Dahmane Khelfi, Rezki Zeggaoui, Akli Mezbout, Saïd Hassoun, Mohamed Saheb, Mohamed Amirouche, Mohamed Rafaï, Hocine Rafaï, Saïd Mesbahi, Ramdane Mesbahi, Omar Harchaoui, Lounès Harchaoui, Ali Stambouli, Ali Bouzar.
After a debate, the members present agreed on the creation of an omnisports civil society within the civil framework representing the jeunesse de Kabylie. Thus the sports association would bear the name of Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie after having rejected those of "Association Sportive de Kabylie" and "Union Sportive Musulmane de Tizi-Ouzou", and the colours retained are green and red. Affiliation would be with the FFFA in the civilian context and two teams would be involved in competitions.
Among the members of the CGT present at this meeting, Hamouda Abbas who wanted to make the club a sports company with a corporate purpose and therefore an affiliation to the FSGT, signified his disagreement and the withdrawal of his institution. This resulted in the refusal of domiciliation of the new sports company at the headquarters of the CGT. Mohamed Seghir Baïleche offered his commercial premises to house the headquarters of the new association while waiting to find something better, and so the "Café de la Jeunesse" served as a gathering place for the JSK. A few days later, on, the club is officially founded as an association whose decision is published in the No. 196 edition of the Official Journal of the French Republic published on August 1946 on page 7348; as well as to the FFFA under number 8153.
The year 1946 therefore saw the beginnings of the club in competition at Tizi Ouzou at the Arsène Weinmann Municipal Stadium, which began in a particular context because it was the first season since the end of World War II, after years of regional criteriums.