Underdog Stories / Football history

History of Al Ahly SC: Founding, Trophies, the People's Club

The history of Al Ahly SC, from a 1907 student club under British control to 12 African Champions Leagues, and why it still calls itself the people's club.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · September 21, 2026

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The first president of Egypt's "people's club" was a British civil servant. Alfred Mitchell-Innes, an adviser to the Ministry of Finance, got the job. Money and official approval still ran through colonial power, so that's who the club handed it to.

That detail is the history of Al Ahly SC in miniature. The club was founded on 24 April 1907 as a gathering place for Cairo's student unions. Football came later. Today Al Ahly holds a record 45 Egyptian league titles and a record 12 CAF Champions League titles. The badge carries four stars.

What is the history of Al Ahly SC?

The idea came from Omar Lotfy, a law student who was president of the High School Students Club. Chris Horwedel, host of Why We Love This Club, describes the setting in the episode "Al Ahly SC — The Club of the Nation". Egypt was formally part of the Ottoman Empire and effectively run by Britain. Young Egyptians could study together and argue about politics, but they had no club of their own.

The nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul became first honorary president. Within a year, Aziz Ezzat Pasha became the first Egyptian president.

Football wasn't the point. Students kicked a ball around a rough patch of ground called the courtyard, and the club formed its first football team in 1911. Tours followed, including matches against sides connected to the British military. Horwedel's line is that the trophies came later and the name came first. "Al Ahly" means "the national."

The red and white came from the flag of the day. Mohamed Sherif Sabri Bek designed the first logo in 1917, with a crown for Egypt's royal rule. After the 1952 revolution the crown was removed. The eagle stayed.

The first National League came in 1949, and the episode says Al Ahly took the first nine titles. That's where the standard started. Horwedel's description of life at the club is the best one in the episode. Nobody joins for a promising three-year project, and second place gets treated as evidence requiring investigation.

What are the major trophy wins of Al Ahly SC?

Here is the short version. Al Ahly has 45 Egyptian Premier League titles, 39 Egypt Cups and 16 Egyptian Super Cups. Abroad: a record 12 Champions Leagues, one CAF Confederation Cup, a record eight CAF Super Cups, a record four African Cup Winners' Cups, and four bronze medals at the FIFA Club World Cup. The club counted 156 titles in total after the Egyptian Super Cup win over Zamalek in November 2025. Other sites give lower totals, so check the date on any number you see.

The 12 Champions Leagues came in 1982, 1987, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. Zamalek and TP Mazembe are next with five each. Mamelodi Sundowns won the 2025-26 edition, so the record is still 12. Foot Africa's headline in May 2026 said Al Ahly were denied a Champions League place for the first time in 23 years. At this club, that counts as a constitutional crisis.

Who were Al Ahly's greatest African nights?

Four of them show what the club is.

1982. Mahmoud El-Khatib, known as "Bibo," scored three of Al Ahly's four goals in the two-legged final against Asante Kotoko of Ghana. Cairo hosted the first leg, with 60,000 people in the stands, and Al Ahly won it 3-0. A year later, in 1983, Bibo was African Footballer of the Year. No Egyptian had won it before him, per the episode.

2006. The final against CS Sfaxien finished 1-1 in Cairo. Over in Tunisia, Sfaxien were sitting on the score that would have made them champions on away goals. Then, deep in stoppage time, a loose ball dropped to Mohamed Aboutrika outside the box. He hit it left-footed, through a crowd of legs, and it went in just inside the far post. Horwedel says Aboutrika meant more to millions of Egyptians than his goals did. His number 22 shirt is one of the best-known sporting images in the country.

“At most clubs, the legendary number 10 belongs to the museum. At Al-Ahly, he chairs the meeting.”
— Chris Horwedel, on Why We Love This Club

2012. More on this below.

2020. The final was Al Ahly against Zamalek, with nobody in the stands because of the pandemic. It was 1-1 with four minutes left when Mohamed Magdy Afsha chested down a cleared ball and hit a half-volley into the corner. Al Ahly won 2-1. Egypt remembers it by the commentator's line, "Al-Qadiya Momkin," which Horwedel renders as "the knockout blow is possible." The coach, Pitso Mosimane, had arrived from Mamelodi Sundowns only weeks earlier. He had already won the Champions League with Sundowns, so he's one of very few coaches to win it with two clubs.

Then there's the Cairo Derby. Horwedel's account is that Al Ahly were historically the nationalist, popular side, and Zamalek were tied to royal and foreign elites. He admits both fanbases are now too big to fit those boxes. It's still how people talk about the rivalry. The two clubs even argue about the "Club of the Century" title. CAF voted Al Ahly African club of the 20th century in 2000, and Zamalek objected to how continental titles had been weighed.

Why is Al Ahly called the people's club?

The name comes from the 1907 idea, and the stands kept it alive. Ultras Ahlawy was founded in 2007 and raised its banner for the first time against ENPPI on 13 April 2007. The group changed Egyptian stadium culture with songs, banners and coordinated displays. It also taught young supporters to organise and stand up to police. When Tahrir Square filled in 2011, the Ahlawy and Zamalek's White Knights marched there in their thousands. Horwedel doesn't claim football caused the revolution. He says the terraces had produced people who knew how to face the state together.

Then came 1 February 2012. After Al Ahly played Al-Masry in Port Said, home supporters invaded the pitch and attacked players and fans. Security forces were widely accused of failing to intervene. Seventy-four people died, 72 of them Al Ahly fans. Horwedel is firm that this can't be treated as a chapter in a trophy story. Families lost children, siblings and parents. Fans carried the names into songs, murals and anniversaries.

The league was canceled. Nine months later, Al Ahly beat Espérance de Tunis in the Champions League final, drawing the first leg and winning the second 2-1 in Tunisia. They dedicated the seventh African title to the victims. Horwedel says plainly that a trophy can't heal a wound. It gave a grieving crowd one night where memory, pride and survival could sit together.

The romantic version of this story leaves things out, and the episode says so. The club's past includes nationalism and commercial power, popular belonging and institutional privilege. It also includes a failure to protect its own supporters. In 2015 a Cairo court designated all ultras groups in Egypt as terrorist organisations. Ultras Ahlawy no longer exist as an organised force at home, and live on at matches outside Egypt. The people's club contains people it couldn't keep safe, and I think that's why the title still means something.

Who is the owner of Al Ahly?

Nobody owns Al Ahly the way a billionaire owns a Premier League side. It is a members' club with an elected board, which the episode calls a public institution rather than a team sheet. El-Khatib was elected president on 1 December 2017 with 20,956 votes, ahead of Mahmoud Taher's 13,182. In the 2025 election, for a board serving 2025 to 2029, he won a third term by acclamation with no opponent.

Some sites say the Egyptian government owns the club, and one claims the current owner is the government of Egypt. I couldn't find that in the club's own election coverage, and the pages making the claim don't show their sources. I'd go with the members.

The old forward now sits in the chair. He negotiates sponsorships, opens branches and oversees the next stadium. The "Project of the Century" is a sports city in Sheikh Zayed, west of Cairo, with a 42,000-seat stadium. In July 2026 the club sold the naming rights to Vodafone Egypt. The people's club has a telecom company on the stadium sign.

How many stars does Al Ahly have?

Four, above the shield. Each represents ten Egyptian league titles. The fourth was added in late 2018 after the 40th league title. Al Ahly now have 45 titles. If the system holds, the fifth star arrives at 50. That's my reading of the pattern, not an announcement.

You will see other numbers on merchandise. One Cairo flag seller lists seven stars. Go by the club's current shield. The eagle is the part that has outlasted everything else.