Al Ahly Football Club (, lit.: 'The National Club'), commonly referred to as Al Ahly, is an Egyptian professional football club based in Cairo, and is considered as the most successful team in Africa and as one of the continent's giants.
The club has a record of 44 national league titles, 39 national cup titles, and 15 national super cup titles, making them the most decorated club in Egypt. In addition, Al Ahly has never been relegated to the Egyptian Second Division.
In international competitions, Al Ahly has won a record of 12 CAF Champions League titles, a CAF Confederation Cup, a record of 8 CAF Super Cups, a record of 4 African Cup Winners' Cups, an Afro-Asian Club Championship, an Arab Club Champions Cup, an 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 African titles, Al Ahly is the most successful football club in African history, and was voted by CAF as African club of the 20th century Al Ahly is the most successful club in the world in terms of number of trophies won and second in terms of international titles won with 26.
Establishment and start of the club
The idea of establishing Al Ahly in the first decade of the 20th century was raised by Omar Lotfy during his presidency of the High School Students Club which was established in 1905. The establishment of the club of high school students was for political reasons, and found that these students needed a sports club that gathers them 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.
The club was first headed by Alfred Mitchell-Innes, who was a British advisor to the Ministry of Finance at the time, in order 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.
The establishment of the club was approved and Ismail Seri, as an architect, designed the main building of the club which was revised by Mitchell-Innes to locate the building in the south eastern corner of the land so that the building main entrance would face north. A civil company on behalf of Al Ahly Sports Club was established and shares of the company were valued at 5 pounds per share. With this, Al Ahly intended to raise £E5000 pounds, but fell short of their target, collecting £E3165 pounds over the course of a year. The club then sought to borrow £E1,000 from the National Bank of Egypt in March 1908 whose president, Talaat Harb, personally contributed £E100 to aid the establishment of the club. The first honorary president of the club was the Minister of Education Saad Zaghloul. The name of the Al Ahly Sporting Club was suggested by Amine Samy Amin, to serve the students and graduates of high schools who were the mainstay of the revolution against the British occupation.
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 the club's main building on 26 February 1908.
Although the game of football was not one of the goals of the founders of Al Ahly club the goal of the club was opening its doors to students of higher schools to meet and practice political dialogues, but the graduates of high schools members of the club have fallen in love with football, which prompted Ahly to build the first stadium in 1909 and they used to call it the time (Al-Hawsh), which is a colloquial word from Egyptian dialect means the courtyard in Arabic. The stadium was developed over the years to be Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium.
The first official football team was established in 1911. The team is one of the primary and secondary school players who played the ball in Al-Hawash, which was established in 1909 in the club's land. The names of the first players of Al Ahly club were as follows: Hussain Higazi, Abdel Fattah Taher, Fouad Darwish, Hussein Mansour, and Ibrahim Fahmy. The star of this team was the striker Hussein Hegazi.
In 1915, Al Ahly made tours inside Egypt cities in order to play various matches and to spread football and its culture. Al Ahly played in Alexandria, Port Said, Assiut, and Ismailia. The team, led by the star Hussein Hegazy, 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 Olympic games 1920. Al-Ahly contributed to the establishment of the Egyptian Football Association. In 1923, Al Ahly played an active role in the establishment of the Egyptian Tennis Federation.
First Titles (1918–1948) After Al Ahly refused to compete with foreign Allied clubs in the Sultan Hussein Cup in its first edition in 1917, the club's management decided to participate in the 1918 championship. In 1923, Al-Ahly won the Sultan Hussain Cup after beating the defending champion Zamalek, then added 6 other titles to be the record holder in the number of wins until the last edition in 1938.
After one year of winning the Sultan Hussain Cup, Al Ahly won the King Farouk Cup in 1924 for the first time after defeating El Sekka El Hadid 4–1. The man of the match was Mokhtar Eltetsh, who scored two goals.
In the summer of 1929, the Al Ahly football team made a tour, the first of its kind 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 after Al Ahly played the last two games in Bulgaria against Levski Sofia and Slavia Sofia.
In November 1930, Al-Ahly defeated traditional 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 won the double by winning the Cairo League tournaments and then the Egypt Cup, beating Zamalek and El Sekka El Hadid. Al Ahly managed to win the league in the last round, defeating Zamalek 4–1 and winning the league 3 points ahead of its traditional rival. In the cup final, Al Ahly defeated Al Sikka 3–2 in an exciting match. Al Ahly's winning goal was scored by Abdel Karim Saqr in the last minutes.
1938 was the last year in which the Sultan Hussein Cup was held, which started in 1917, and Al Ahly won its last version with a difficult 1–0 victory over Al Masry in the final match after Mustafa Latif scored a goal in the first half of extra time. In the Cairo League competition, Al Ahly won it in the last round again, with a large 5–1 victory over the second placed team Zamalek, in a match in which Saleh Al Sawwaf scored two goals, and Mokhtar El-Tetsh, Jamil Saber and Abdel-Majid El-Ashry scored one goal.
Al Ahly football team traveled to Palestine in 1943 on a 23-day tour headed by the legend Mokhtar El Tetsh to play several matches with Arab teams to support Palestine against the Zionists. The decision came, despite the refusal of the president of the Egyptian Football Association Haider Pasha due to the pressure from the British, due to their known position against the Palestinian issue.
Dominating the league (1948–1967)
In the first edition of the Egyptian Premier League that was 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. Mekkawi added a second goal in the second half, and Helmy Abu El-Maaty, Mohamed Lahita and Fathi Khattab each scored one goal. 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 Sidqi – 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 Al Ahly to win the first league in the club's history as a manager, Al Ahly snapped the league and cup (the double) for the first time after defeating Zamalek 3–1 in the 1949 Egypt Cup final. Toto, Hussein Madkour and Fathi Khattab scored for Al Ahly.
The 1949–50 season witnessed a historical superiority for Al Ahly by the golden fifties generation led by Saleh Selim and Toto and Ahmed Makkawi, winning all the local championships. Al Ahly won the Egyptian Premier League after strong competition with Tersana ended with the two teams tying in points. The league winner was decided by a play-off match; Al Ahly clinched the league the after defeating Tersana 2–1 in the play-off. Goals were scored by Toto and Fathi Khattab. Al Ahly also won the Cairo League, one point ahead of Tersana. In the Egypt Cup, Al Ahly Defeated Tersana in the final by a big score 6–0.
In the 1950–51 season, Al Ahly won the double, by winning the league for the third consecutive time despite the strong competition with Zamalek, Then the Red Giants completed the double with a difficult victory in the Egyptian Cup final against El Sekka El Hadid.
Following the dethroning of King Farouk in the revolution of 1952, Ahly appointed Gamal Abdel Nasser as club honorary president.
The 1951–52 league championship was canceled due to the revolution of 1952. The competition returned the following season and Al Ahly managed to win it for the fourth time in a row with only two points ahead of Zamalek, after the two teams tied 2–2 in the last round, In the Egypt Cup, Al Ahly managed to defeat the defending champions Zamalek 4–1 in the final in a match in which Saleh Selim scored two goals and his older brother Abdel-Wahab Selim also scored a goal.
In the 1956–57 season, the number of teams increased to 14 teams, and Al-Ahly managed to win the league with a difference of 9 points ahead from Zamalek the runner-up, 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. Al Ahly scored 55 goals in just 18 games this season, more than 20 goals from its nearest competitors.
After losing the league for the first time since the start of the competition, Al Ahly won the league for the tenth time in the club history in 1960–61 season. Al Ahly won the Egypt Cup after defeating El Qanah 5–0. Mimi El-Sherbini scored two goals for Al Ahly.
First participation in African championships (1967–1980) After the 1967 war and the suspension of sporting activity in Egypt, the Club Board headed by Ibrahim Kamel El-Wakil announced that the club will host the military training for the members that will volunteer in the army, as well as collect donations in the name of the club to support the army.
An entire generation of football stars retired because of the war, like Saleh Selim, Tariq Salim, Taha Ismail, Rifaat El-Fanagily, Adel Haikal and Mahmoud El-Gohary. Al-Ahly did not win the league for another 13 years.
After years of deterioration, Ahly took the first steps to recovery when the management decided to sign Nándor Hidegkuti as head coach in September 1973 at a salary of fewer than 600 dollars. Hidegkuti brought up a new generation known as El Talamza (the students). The league title returned to Al Ahly in 1974–75, with the team scoring 70 goals in 34 games.