Ahly  is an Egyptian Sports club founded and headed by the English gentleman Mitchel Ince in April, 1907 in Cairo, Egypt. The club has risen from popular roots to become Africa’s greatest club as well as being one of the world's most successful clubs, with 99 trophies in 100 years. Al-Ahly, best known as the “people’s club”, is believed to have 50 million supporters in Egypt, making them the most supported club in Africa and the Middle East and one of the most popular clubs in the world.

Al-Ahly, which means "national" in Arabic, is the most crowned club in Egypt, having won the Egyptian League 31 times (more than the sum of all other Egyptian clubs including their arch-rivals Al-Zamalek) and the Egyptian Cup a record 34 times. Moreover, Al-Ahly is the best club in Africa, winning the CAF champions league 5 times (a joint record), the African Cup-Winners-Cup 4 times (a record), the CAF super cup 3 times (a joint record), and the Afro-Asian Cup 1 time, being named "African club of the 20th century" by CAF in 2000.

Al-Ahly began to dominate the Egyptian game in the 40s due to its popularity among people and rulers of Egypt at that period. But it was not until the 80s that the Red Devils truly emerged to the African level, winning the top club competition in 1982 and 1987. They triumphed again in 2001, 2005 and 2006 under the coaching of the Portuguese Manuel Jose and now, less than three years into his record-breaking second stint, Ahly have added another continental crown in an undefeated streak that has gone beyond 50 matches.

Al-Ahly has a fierce rivalry with local rivals Al-Zamalek; the derby matches are so intense, that foreign referees are brought in to officiate the game. The deep hatred between the two sets of fans can be compared to Celtic-Rangers. It is a well known fact that Al-Ahly is supported by 70 % of Egypt's middle and working classes.

The Idea

he idea of establishing Al-Ahly was aroused by Omar Lotfi. He shared the idea with Edrees Rageb Pasha, Omar Sultan Pasha, Ismaeel Serry, Abdul El Khalek Tharwat, and Ameen Samy. They came together with the idea to establish a club for high school students to spend their spare time, as the Union was formed for political reasons in the first place. They decided to establish a company with five thousand Egyptian Pounds.

The higher administrative committee (The Board) chose Englishman Mitchel Ince as the first president of Al-Ahly in order to get the blessings of the occupation authorties and to help obtain suitable land (from the government) for establishing the club.

The first official meeting of higher administrative committee was held in April 24, 1907, in Anas' residence, as Mitchel Ince as chairman and Omar Lotfi, Edrees Rageb Pasha, Ismaeel Serry, and Ameen Sammy as members and Mohamed Sherif as a secretary. Ince remained president until April 2, 1908.

It is worth mentioning that Al-Ahly has a great rivalery with Al-Zamalek club of Egypt. Both teams exchanged several players throughout their history leading to a lot of disputes and challenges. They have met more than 80 times in derbies. The biggest score was for Al-Zamalek defeating Al-Ahly 6:0 in the Egyptian Soccer Cup in 1944, when the Egyptian football Federation punished Al-Ahly team with stopping their activity 11 months, because Al-Ahly traveled to play friendly in Palestine without getting a political permission, the punishment ended directly before the match. Al-Ahly takes revenge defeating Zamalek 6:1 in the Egyptian League 2001/02.

The name

On February 25, 1908, Ameen Samy suggested the name Ahly Athletic Club (National Athletic Club), as it was founded to contain High School Students who were the main pillar for the resistance against British occupation of Egypt. So, it was founded as an Egyptian national club to unite these students, and named Al-Ahly to represent nationalism with the literal meaning of the word. Al-Ahly is considered the first club founded for Egyptians in Egypt and was established during British occupation of Egypt.

Ahly derived its color from the early 20th century Flag of Egypt. Story of the color goes back to year 1911 when the jersey was linear striped in red and white. Then, it was changed to a half red-a half white linear jersey ,until it rests at the red color only as it was the color of the Egyptian flag in the reign period of Abbas Helmy the second at that time.

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