Football leagues around the world: Egyptian Premier League

Football is a truly global sport, played and followed passionately in every corner of the world. While elite competitions like the Premier League, LaLiga, 1. Bundesliga, and Serie A often dominate the headlines, football thrives in countless other countries, many of which are rapidly gaining prominence.

Last year’s revamped FIFA Club World Cup offered a glimpse into the growing strength of the lesser-known leagues. And so, we’ve decided to launch a special series in which we put the spotlight on leagues from around the globe.

Here, we take a look at one of Africa’s biggest leagues — Egyptian Premier League, the top flight of men’s professional club football in Egypt, officially known as the Nile League due to its title sponsorship agreement with Nile Developments, a New Cairo-based real estate company.

History

Football in Britain-occupied Egypt began as early as 1882, with the British keen to spread their game all over the world. This was initially seen as an odd move by the Egyptians, but they soon started to like the game, which soon moved out from the British camps to the streets of Egypt, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

In 1903, the first Egyptian club, El Sekka El Hadid Club, was formed, comprising mainly British and Italian engineers working in the railways department. However, football gained national popularity with the creation of the Al Ahly club in 1907 and the creation of Al-Mukhtalat Club (renamed as Zamalek SC) in 1911. 

Another significant development was the creation of the Egyptian-English Football Association in 1916, which had 50 Egyptian representatives and British personnel. In 1917, the organisation founded the first competition called the Sultan Hussein Cup, which ran until 1938. 

In 1921, the EEFA gave way to the Egyptian Football Association (EFA). In May 1923, Egypt joined the FIFA roster as a member nation, a move that transformed the future of sports in the country. 

In 1938, the Egyptian Football Association took control of the Cairo Zone Competition along with the other three leagues. The Cairo Zone Competition was renamed the Cairo League and remained operational until the mid-1940s.

The EFA realised the need for a national league and passed the idea to the country’s monarch at the time, King Farouk I. The Egyptian Premier League was thus founded, by royal decree, and kicked off in 1948. Its inaugural season being won by Al Ahly, who would go on to win the league consecutively for a decade, until 1960, when the title was clinched by their fierce rivals, Zamalek.

Football in Egypt has experienced major disruptions over the years. The most recent event was the cancellation of the tournament in 2012, after a massive disaster struck, in which 74 fans (mostly Al Ahly supporters) lost their lives in riots resulting from a pitch invasion during a game between Al Ahly and Al Masry. As a result, Egyptian fans were banned from stadiums for a period of six years.

In 2013, the Egyptian League was cancelled due to the Egyptian coup d’état. This marked the fifth time that Egypt’s domestic competition was cancelled. The 1954/55, 1970/71, 1973/74, and 1989/90 campaigns were also discontinued for various reasons.

With the COVID pandemic striking in 2020, Egyptian fans would not return to the stadiums until 2021. 

Al Ahly and Zamalek have dominated the league, with Al Ahly also dominating the continental competitions. They were awarded the African Club of the Year award consecutively in 2023 and 2024 for their continued success. 

Format

These days, an Egyptian Premier League season usually has an August–May run. Ideally, the league sees 18 teams participating for the title, but the 2025/26 season will see 21 teams participate; no teams were relegated after the 2024/25 season due to the revamped format and clubs complaining about fixture congestion. 

The league format has gone from the usual double round-robin one to a two-phase one, inspired by the Belgian Football League. 

In the first phase, all 21 teams will play one game against each opponent. For the second phase, the table will be split into two groups. 

Group 1 — Teams ranked from 1st to 7th (Championship group) 
Group 2 — Teams ranked from 8th to 21st (Relegation group) 

The first group will then compete for the title and the qualification spots for the continental competitions, while teams in the second group will fight to stay in the league. Both groups will also feature a round?robin format, with each team playing every other team in the group once.

Promotion and Relegation

The Egyptian Premier League follows the usual promotion and relegation process. Earlier, the 18 clubs participated in a double round-robin format, playing each team both home and away in a 34-game season. Teams were ranked by total points, and teams level on points would be judged by — in decreasing order of priority — the head-to-head record between them, then goal difference, and then goals scored. 

At the end of a season, the team with the most points would be declared the winner, with the three bottom-placed teams relegated to the second tier, the Egyptian Second Division A. 

However, according to the new format, the top seven teams will fight for the title and continental competitions, while the bottom 14 will fight for top-flight survival. 

At the end of the 2025/26 season, four teams will be relegated to the second tier, with three teams coming up. By 2027, the number of teams in the league will have reduced to 18 once again, after which the number of teams to be relegated will return to three.

Important Stats

• Al Ahly have been the most decorated club in Egyptian Premier League history, having won a record 45 titles. They are followed by Zamalek, who are far behind on 14 titles. 

• The top goal-scorer of all time in Egyptian Premier League history is Hasam Al-Shazly, who scored 176 goals for Tersana between 1959 and 1977. 

• The player with the most appearances in the Egyptian Premier League is Mohamed Abdel Monsef with 458 appearances. Monsef broke the record of another goalkeeper, Essam El-Hadary, who made 455 appearances. 

• The goalkeeper with the most clean sheets in the Egyptian Premier League is Essam El-Hadary with 212 clean sheets in 391 games. He has represented several clubs in the Egyptian Premier League, having represented Al Ahly the most (340 appearances).