Al-Ahly S.C.

Al-Ahly Sports Club (Arabic: النادي الأهلي الرياضي‎), commonly known as simply Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian sporting club. Founded in April 1907, Al-Ahly was named in 2000 by the Confederation of African Football as the "African Club of the Century". Al-Ahly claim to have more than 50 million fans in Egypt^[1], a country with an overall population of approximately 80 million,^[2] including the Ultras Ahlawy.

Al-Ahly is the most successful football club in Africa, closely followed by their rivals Zamalek SC and TP Mazembe from DR Congo.

History

Al-Ahly was founded in 1907 as a club where leaders of Cairo's students' unions could meet during the struggle against colonisation.^[3]

On 25 February 1907, Amine Samy chose the name 'Ahly' for the newly founded club to fit with its purpose. It started out as an Egyptian Limited Liability Company with a capital of 5000 EGP. The club's first chairman was an English man named Mitchell Ince, who facilitated the foundation of the club and issued planning permissions for the land it owned. In the year 1922, electricity was connected to the club's headquarters for the first time to replace gasoline in a major project that cost 52 EGP at the time.

Three years later, the club's congress decided to make membership exclusive to Egyptians, earning them the title of the 'the people's club'. From these humble origins, Al Ahly have attracted a large number of followers all over Africa, and claim to have over 50 million supporters, making them one of the most popular clubs in the world.

The club also has a reputation for being one of the most organised and sophisticated in the Middle East, adopting a high moral stance in its business dealings. For this reason it is known as 'the club of values' - a phrase initially coined by the club's all-time idol and former president Saleh Selim.^[4]

Al-Ahly began to dominate the Egyptian game in the 1940s. In the 1980s the club became successful on a continental level, winning the African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1982 and 1987. They triumphed again in the renamed competition in 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2008^[5] under the coaching of the Portuguese Manuel José making them the most crowned team in Africa, with six Champions League titles, four Cup-Winners' Cups, four Super Cups and one Afro-Asian Club Championship.

Al Ahly was the first club to reach the FIFA Club World Cup twice following two consecutive appearances in 2005 and 2006 winning the Bronze Medal in the latter, becoming the first African club to win a medal in the competition. After qualifying for the 2008 edition, Al Ahly became the team with the most appearances in the FIFA Club World Cup, having qualified for 3 times out of 6 competitions held.

Crest

Al Ahly has had three crests in its history. The first, adopted in 1907, lasted until the 1952 Revolution. The second crest was used from 1952 until 2007, when the club unveiled a new design to commemorate Al Ahly's first century of existence. The club's main colours, red , white as well as the flying eagle are derived from Egypt's flag during the Khedives era.

Colours

Al Ahly's home kit, since the club's founding, has always been the familiar red shirt with white shorts. The team's away kit is the dark blue shirt with dark blue shorts, although the team formerly played with white shorts in the away kit. The old away kit used until the 90s was a green shirt with white shorts and green socks. In 2008, Al Ahly unveiled their third kit for the first time since the club's founding. It was first used in a match against bitter rivals Zamalek SC. The kit is composed of Ahly's home shirt and black shorts. It is still currently in use as a third kit and is still worn by the team in all Al-Ahly versus Zamalek Derbies. This is due to the fact that Zamalek SC wears a white home kit, with two red stripes on the shirt. If Al-Ahly wore their home kit in the derby matches, there would be only a small difference in the shirt colour and no difference in the shorts' colour.

Stadiums

Al Ahly formerly played their home games at their own ground, Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium, but its capacity was too small for the club's support. As a consequence, Al-Ahly now play their home ties at the Cairo International Stadium.^[3] Before seats were added to all sections in 2005, the stadium was notorious for holding more people than it was intended to. Cairo Stadium has a record of hosting over 120,000 fans in Egypt versus Cameroon match in 1986.^[6]

Presidents

Ultras Fan Groups

Al-Ahly had the first Ultras Fan Group in Egypt the Ahly Fans Club (AFC) the group disbanded in 2007 into two big ultras groups, Ultras Ahlawy (UA07) and Ultras Devils (UD07). Ultras Ahlawy (based in Cairo) is the largest fan group in Egypt. while, Ultras Devils are based in Alexandria and having members from other coastal cities near Alexandria. In the following years other Fan Groups were formed as Curva Red Venom Then Al-Ahly fans made a great step forward by forming an Ultras Fan Group in the 2nd class seats called Ultras Red Storm however the group was the smallest of them. Despite having several fan groups. All of them cheer together in the matches and have the same part of the stadium called TALTA CHIMAL or Curva Nord section.

Perfect Season

2005 represented an especially unique season in Ahly's illustrious history. The team would go on to set an unprecedented record of going an entire season being unbeaten in all possible competitions. 46 matches were played in the: Egyptian Premier League, Egyptian Cup, Egyptian Super Cup and CAF Champions League, with Ahly remaining unbeaten in all of them (as well as winning all 4 trophies). This feat has yet to be emulated.

Honours

Total number of cups: 122. ^[8]

Worldwide / Intercontinental

• FIFA Club World Cup
  • Bronze Medalist, 2006
• Afro-Asian Cup
  • Winners (1) : 1988
• Arab Champions Cup
  • Winners (1) : 1996
• Arab Super Cup
  • Winners (2) : 1997, 1998 (record)
• Arab Cup Winners' Cup
  • Winners (1): 1994–1995

African

• CAF Champions League
  • Winners (6) : 1982, 1987, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008 (record)
• African Cup Winners' Cup
  • Winners (4) : 1984, 1985, 1986, 1993 (record)
• CAF Super Cup
  • Winners (4) : 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009 (record)

Domestic

League

• Egyptian Premier League
  • Winners (36) :1948/1949, 1949/1950, 1950/1951, 1952/1953, 1953/1954, 1955/1956, 1956/1957, 1957/1958, 1958/1959, 1960/1961, 1961/1962, 1974/1975, 1975/1976, 1976/1977, 1978/1979, 1979/1980, 1980/1981, 1981/1982, 1984/1985, 1985،1986, 1986/1987, 1988/1989, 1993/1994, 1994/1995, 1995/1996, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999, 1999/2000, 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011 (record)
• Cairo League
  • Winners (17) :1924/25, 1926/27, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1930/31, 1932/33, 1933/34, 1934/35, 1935/36, 1936/37, 1937/38, 1938/39, 1941/42, 1942/43, 1947/48, 1949/50, 1957/58 (record)

Cup

• Egypt Cup
  • Winners (35) : 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1966, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007 (record)
• Egyptian Super Cup
  • Winners (6): 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 (record)
• Sultan Hussein Cup
  • Winners (7): 1923,1925,1926,1927,1929,1931,1938 (record)
• United Arab Republic Cup (during the United Arab Republic era)
  • Winners (1) : 1961 (record)
• Confederation Cup refresher
  • Winners (1) : 1989

Competitive record

African Club Competitions

Domestic Competitions

CAF Overall Ranking of African Clubs

Current ranking

Ranking of the Century

Players and coaching staff

Current first team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Youth academy squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Retired numbers

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Since 2006, Al Ahly have not issued the squad number 3. It was retired in memory of Mohamed Abdelwahab, who died of a heart attack while he was in a training with Al-Ahly in Cairo and since then no one wore the number three.

Coaching staff

Source:

Managers List

Captains

Other sports

Al Ahly club compete in different other sports. Al Ahly's Handball, Athletics, Volleyball and Basketball teams have won many national, African and Arabic competitions.

Sponsors

• Adidas
• Chevrolet
• Etisalat Egypt
• Juhayna

See also

• Egyptian Premier League
• Egypt Cup
• Egyptian Super Cup
• Cairo derby

References

External links

• Official website
• BBC World Service: African Footballer of the Year 2008
• BBC News article referencing "Club of the Century"
• BBC News article referencing unbeaten streak
• Al-Ahly Legends 1907–2011 (Arabic)