Football in Egypt

Egypt's main sport is football. People in Egypt[1][2][3] gather around to watch various Egyptian clubs and the Egyptian national football team play almost on a daily basis.The most commonly known Egyptian clubs are El Ahly and El Zamalek of Cairo. For the Egyptian Premier League the main competition is split between these two teams making majority of Egyptians rooting for either team, calling themselves Ahlaweyeen or Zamalkaweyeen in the Egyptian own dialect of Arabic, leaving the minority rooting for the rest of the teams in the league. These two teams create the greatest football rivalry in Africa.

Premier League

The Egyptian Premier League(League A) has nineteen clubs, El masry of portsaid will not play in 2012-013 premier league season due to the port said disaster . Some prominent Premier League clubs, other than El Ahly and Zamalek SC are Ismaily SC (Ismailia), El Masry (Port Sa'id), El Itihad (Alexandria) and El Mokawloon SC (Cairo).[4][5][6] While ENPPI_Club & Haras El-Hadoud are clubs on the rise. The Egyptian league is considered to be one of the most competitive leagues in Africa and around the world.

There is no official English translation or title for the Egyptian League, in any case the league is named the Etisalat Premier League due to sponsorship by Etisalat. Until 2006/07 season however, the name was Vodafone Premier League since Vodafone was the sponsor of the league.

The top:El Ahly,Zamalek,Ismaily. The names of the top three teams in Egypt. They have the largest number of fans in Egypt.Al Ahly known also as the red devils won 36 premier leagues Zamalek won 11 Ismaily won 3. These three teams have also dominated the African continent for years alongside El Mokawloon SC who won African cup winners cup championships. Ismaily or the yellow dragons were the first Egyptian team to win the champions league in their golden era. Zamalek dominated Africa from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. El Ahly who won their first league championship after Ismaily and Zamalek dominated Africa in the beginning of the 21st century by winning 5 league titles after their 1982 and 1987 champions league victory.

National football team's achievements

The Egypt national football team, also known under the nickname of The Pharaohs, is, as their name states, the national team of Egypt and is administered by the Egyptian Football Association. The team was founded in 1921.[7] The team has won multiple cups over the years. They won the African Cup of Nations 7 times. Egypt won the inaugural Cup in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010.[8] Making them record holders of most African cup wins (for winning 7 times) and most wins in a row (for winning 3 times in a row). This makes them one of the best teams in Africa.

Their highest FIFA ranking was in July 2010 when they ranked 9th in the world, making it their greatest achievement.<ref ==Egyptian name="fifa"/> They were the first from an African country and also, from an Arab country to participate in the World Cup when they played in 1934,[9] losing to Hungary 4-2. Although they lost, they are still considered one of the strongest teams in Africa.

Stadiums

Considering football is the main sport in Egypt, it has a total of 27 soccer stadiums spread around the country.[10] The main stadium used to be Cairo International Stadium but after the new stadium was built, Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria has become the home stadium for the Egyptian National Team. This stadium carries a capacity of 86,000 big enough to fit all the fans that come out to watch the Egyptian Premier League along with all the other games the Egyptian teams play.[11]

Current national squad

An outdoor soccer team has a starting line-up of 11 players including the goal keeper. In a typical game, a team is allowed three substitutions. Most football teams have a minimum of 25 players, choosing three players to substitute throughout the game. Below is the roster of the 2013 team of Egypt.

# Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 GK Sherif Ekramy 1 July 1983 9 0 Egypt El Ahly
16 GK Abdelwahed El-Sayed 3 June 1977 38 0 Egypt Zamalek
23 GK Ahmed El-Shenawy 14 May 1991 9 0 Egypt Zamalek
2 DF Mahmoud Fathalla 12 February 1982 56 2 Egypt Zamalek
3 DF Ahmed El-Mohammady 9 September 1987 57 2 England Hull City
4 DF Okka 3 January 1984 21 1 Belgium Lierse
6 DF Adam El-Abd 11 September 1984 5 0 England Brighton & Hove Albion
7 DF Ahmed Fathy 10 November 1984 93 3 England Hull City
12 DF Ahmad Shedid Qinawi 1 January 1986 7 0 Egypt El-Ahly
13 DF Mohamed Abdel-Shafy 1 July 1985 26 1 Egypt Zamalek
20 DF Wael Gomaa 3 August 1975 114 1 Egypt El-Ahly
21 DF Mohamed Nagieb 13 January 1983 8 0 Egypt El-Ahly
28 DF Omar Gaber 30 January 1992 9 0 Egypt Zamalek
5 MF Ibrahim Salah 1 April 1987 18 0 Egypt Zamalek
8 MF Hosny Abd Rabo 1 November 1984 95 16 Saudi Arabia Al Nassr
10 MF Ahmed Eid 15 May 1980 49 9 Egypt Zamalek
14 MF Mohamed Ibrahim 1 March 1992 11 1 Egypt Zamalek
17 MF Mohamed El-Nenny 11 July 1992 24 0 Switzerland Basel
18 MF Ahmed Temsah 12 April 1986 20 2 Oman Al Dhofar
19 MF Abdallah El Said 13 July 1985 9 0 Egypt Al-Ahly
22 MF Mohamed Aboutrika 7 November 1978 96 37 United Arab Emirates Bani Yas
25 MF Nour El-Sayed 1 September 1985 1 0 Egypt Zamalek
26 MF Ahmed Hamoudi 8 December 1989 4 1 Egypt Smouha
27 MF Hossam Ashour 9 March 1986 7 0 Egypt El Ahly
29 MF Amr Al-Sulaya 2 April 1989 5 0 Egypt Ismaily
30 MF Ashour El-Taqy 28 November 1980 11 0 Belgium Lierse
9 FW Ahmed Hassan Mekky 20 April 1987 26 7 Egypt Haras El-Hodood
11 FW Mohamed Salah 15 June 1992 20 10 England Chelsea
15 FW Gedo 30 October 1984 34 17 England Hull City
24 FW Ahmed Gaafar 21 December 1986 2 1 Egypt Zamalek
31 FW Koka 5 March 1993 0 0 Portugal Rio Ave

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mohamed El-Sayed (2004). "When life began". Ahram Weekly. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Youssef Hamza. "Egypt's Ultras have shown military rule the red card". The National. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  3. ↑ The Linguistics of Football. Google Books. 2008. ISBN 9783823363989. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  4. ↑ "Egypt's politicised football hooligans". Al Jazeera. 21 February 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  5. ↑ "'The Ultras Book': Ethnography of an unusual crowd". Egypt Independent. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  6. ↑ "Egypt's politicised football hooligans". The Nation. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Country info". FIFA World Cup™. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  8. ↑ Aaron Ross (18 August 2012). "The man at the epicentre of Egyptian football". The National. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  9. ↑ Mahfoud Amara (May–August 2014). "Sport and Political Leaders in the Arab World". Histoire@Politique 23. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  10. ↑ "Stadiums in Egypt". Bugarri. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  11. ↑ "Stadiums in Egypt". FIFA World Cup™. 3 January 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Association football in Egypt.