Cairo derby

The Cairo Derby, otherwise known as the Egyptian Derby or the Greater Cairo Derby, is a football/soccer match between Egyptian clubs Ahl and Zamalek. It is a great matchup between arguably the two most successful clubs in Africa and two of the best Arabian football clubs. Usually it is a semi-annual fixture with 2 matches in the Egyptian Premier League, but it is not uncommon to find the teams meeting each other given that they also compete in the cup and almost always in Africa's most prestigious club competition the CAF Champions League.

The Rivalry

Ever since their creation and both clubs have been the top clubs of Egyptian football in general. Ahly won their first league title when the Egyptian league was first created in 1948-1949 and managed to win 33 titles till this time in mid-2008. Zamalek managed to win the league 11 titles and come second to Ahly in the number of Egyptian League titles won.

It is normally thought through history of origins that Zamalek - the same name of the Cairo district housing most of Egypt's elite- had been the club of aristocrats while Ahly -which means national in Arabic- is the club of the middle class and lower class work force of Egyptians [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=107/edition=4735/news/newsid=100431.html] [http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=107/edition=4735/news/newsid=100851.html] , that this helped mold the first beginnings of rivalry and tension between the two entities. Their first ever match in the league ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw [http://egypt.worldcupblog.org/uncategorized/ahly-zamalek-derbys-preview.html] .

Fans of both clubs are not docile when in anger and this is clear by the police preparations before, during and after the match with numerous fights, injuries and deaths used to be reported before matters became more controlled thanks to Egypt's authoritative regime but still many fights and riots occure after many derby matches between both sets of fans that might come across each other and that is certainly a rising trend with the increasing popularity of the "ultra" movement in Cairo introduced in mid-2007 by Ahly's Ultras Ahlawy.

Recent Times

Still dubbed by FIFA as " One of the world's fiercest footballing rivalries" [http://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/news/newsid=825986.html] , the derby in recent years have been mostly been in favor of Al Ahly since 2004. Since then, Ahly and Zamalek played 12 times, Zamalek won only once, the teams had a 0-0 stalemate in 2006 and the Reds as Ahly is nicknamed recorded 10 victories including 2 in the African Champions League and this is mainly due to Zamalek's internal board disagreements and disputes that have risen in 2004 and continue till today.

ignificant Players

The derby has always been a breading ground for Egyptian talents to even boast their names even higher than the fact that they play for one of the two best African clubs. These are players that have been household names for fans of both clubs and the Egyptian national team as both clubs are Egypt's main supplier of national team players.

Ahly Players

- Hossam Hassan- Ibrahim Hassan- Mohamed Aboutraika- Emad Moteab- Essam Al Hadary- Mohamed Barakat- Khaled Bibo- Mahmoud El Khattib- Mostafa Abdo- Taher Abu Zaid- Saleh Selim- Hussein Hegazi- Mokhtar El Teitsh- Hady Khashaba- Hassan Hamdy- Thabet El Batal

Zamalek Players

- Shikabala- Gamal Hamza- Mohamed Abd El Monseif- Abd El Wahid El Sayed- Sherif Ashraf- Abd El Halim Ali- Farouk Gaafar- Manuel agogo- Hazem Emam- Emmanuel Ammuneke- Amr Zaki- Ashraf Kassem- Ahmed El Kas- Hesham Yakan- Ayman Abd El Aziz- Mahmmoud Fatthalla- Tarek Yehia- Hani Said

Works of the Ultras

References

http://www.footballderbies.com/results/index.php?id=59http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2008/03/11/cairo-derby-divides-an-entire-nation/http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=107/edition=4735/news/newsid=100851.htmlhttp://egypt.worldcupblog.org/uncategorized/ahly-zamalek-derbys-preview.htmlhttp://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/news/newsid=825986.htmlhttp://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/tournament=107/edition=4735/news/newsid=100431.html