Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
19 - 25 April 2007
Issue No. 841
Battling Barca
Ahli of Egypt will take on European champions Barcelona in a friendly in Cairo marking the centennial anniversary of the African club of the century. Inas Mazhar reports
Egyptians are excited by the long- awaited match on Tuesday 24 April as hosts Ahli put the finishing touches for the big occasion.
Roughly 69,800 tickets will go on sale three days before the match, specifically following tomorrow's second leg round 16 clash with South Africa's Sundowns in the African Champions League. The first leg ended 2-2 in Pretoria.
Prices start from LE3,000 for the VIP tribune and LE1,000 for the main tribune. First class tickets are worth LE150 for the lower level and LE75 for the upper level. Second class tickets are available for LE50 and the lowest price is LE25 for third class.
Ahli member Khaled Mortagi said the club had allocated a stand for retired Ahli players to attend the game. The club has also invited all former chairmen and board members to attend the club's board of directors meeting on 24 April, the day of the match, and which marks 100 years since the first meeting took place on the same day in 1907.
The presidents of Ahli and FC Barcelona signed an agreement last month over the arrangements for the friendly. Barcelona President Juan Laporta, director Albert Perrin and technical secretary Txiki Begiristain were in Egypt ago as hosts of Ahli during which they checked the facilities. The agreement to stage the match was signed by the presidents of the two continental champs in Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo with over 200 journalists present.
Ahli president Hassan Hamdi said he was "delighted and honoured to have arranged for the centennial match against one of the world's best and strongest clubs."
Laporta returned the compliment by saying he felt the game "would be more than a match, as it would be between two clubs with a strong and proud history behind them."
The game will also work on deepening the alliance between the two clubs on a marketing front and for young footballers, who will participate in an academy to be set up as part of the deal.
The visiting team is expected to arrive 24 hours ahead of the game. Ahli will hold a press conference 90 minutes after the arrival of the guests to be attended by Barcelona head coach Frank Rijkaard as well as three of their best players, led by Brazilian Ronaldinho.
Sixty media people are expected to accompany the Spanish team.
The teams met in Cairo before in a friendly on 7 April 7 1961. The Catalans won 6-1 that day with goals coming from Villaverde (2), Evaristo, Verges, Garay and Kocsis.
In 2001 Ahli beat Spanish giants Real Madrid 1-0 in Cairo.
26 April - 2 May 2007
Issue No. 842
Icing melts on the century cake
Barcelona came to celebrate Ahli's 100th anniversary, writes
Alaa Abdel-Ghani. For the crowds, though, the Spanish giants proved party-poopers
Ahli could not have received a nicer present for its 100th birthday bash than an engaging encounter with the boys from Barcelona. But the defending European champions dampened the festivities with a methodical 4-0 trouncing of their dazed hosts in a boisterous-turned-sombre Cairo Stadium on Tuesday night.
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The president's attendance underlined the importance of the Ahli-Barcelona match for Egyptians, who cheered and cheered. It was left to the Spaniards to demonstrate that there was little cause for celebration
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The sellout crowd of 76,000, some of whom had shelled out LE3,000 a ticket, were of two emotions and minds. They had wanted to see Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Messi and Deco up close and watch first-hand what you can get for 259 million euros -- Barca is the second richest club on the planet. But the public in the stands and watching on TV also wanted Ahli to win. They were destined for disappointment.
Barcelona's Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard did the opposite of what was expected. He kept his big guns warming the bench and instead deployed a first half line-up of mainly substitutes. The reserves did well, silencing the hugely vocal and animated crowd with two quick goals by Javiar Saviola and Thiago Motta. By the second half Ahli were already a spent force but still had to contend with the firepower of Barcelona's standing 11. Wave after wave of Catalan attacks picked Ahli's defence apart, the Cameroonian Eto'o ghosting past the opposing red shirts for two more precision strikes. Gianluca Zambrotta, Lilian Thuram and Victor Valdes took care of the other end, stopping any Ahli threat from germinating.
Ahli had been hoping to emulate its famous 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in 2001 when the Spanish club fielded players of the quality of Raul, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos. But Barcelona, which has had Maradona, Cruyff and Ronaldo wearing its shirt, appeared to have come to Cairo with more serious intentions than Real Madrid and in the end Ahli needed the valiant efforts of star goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari to prevent a goal tally similar to the 6-1 drubbing Barcelona inflicted on Ahli 46 years ago.
Tuesday's result was not exactly how the current African champions would have liked to cap their centennial celebrations. The club is much more used to winning games and championships than being at the wrong end of a lopsided score as their 99 major football trophies in 100 years attest.
But in the end it was only a friendly match and it would be silly if the final outcome, embarrassing as it is, was allowed to spoil the celebrations of 100 years of Ahli history. Ahli was established partly by the British, who wanted to set up a sports club which would give teenagers something to do other than plot the speedy exit of the occupation. With a different purpose in mind, Ahli's founder, senior official Omar Lutfi Bey, wanted a purely national club to counter British dominance of the country, which extended to sports.
Ahli cost LE5,000 (when the brown back was a brown back). Its Egyptian board chose Englishman Mitchel Ince as its first president in order to get the blessings of the occupation authorities (Ince would be the first and last foreign president) and the club's first board meeting was on 24 April 1907.
Nationalist figures who were either on Ahli's board or members of the club included Lutfi, Aziz Ezzat, Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat, Idris Ragheb, Ismail Serri, Amin Sami, Mohamed Sherif Sabri and Talaat Harb. Among its most famous supporters were Saad Zaghlul, the nationalist leader who rallied against British occupation, and former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
Cognizant of Ahli's fan base and immense social influence, Egypt's leaders have not shied from associating themselves with the club. Ahli was under the protection of King Fouad in 1929, and Nasser became an honorary president in 1956. King Farouk would be in attendance when the legendary Um Kalthoum sang the night away in the club's interior. Tuesday's match attracted President Hosni Mubarak, his young grandson perched on his lap.
It also saw the return of Cairo's chic crowd with their brand name apparel, out in abundance during last year's African Cup of Nations but seemingly in hibernation since. This time, though, there would be no trophy held aloft and Ahli's avid supporters instead spent a good part of the game silenced by their club's largely insipid performance. Ahli's star striker, Mohamed Abu Treika, did his level best, several times marauding close to Barca's goal, but his teammates were woefully far from form and failed to provide the crucial assistance.
The Ahli seen against Barcelona seemed far from the club showered with accolades, the most crowned football club in Egypt which has won the league 31 times, more than the sum of all other Egyptian clubs, and the Egyptian Cup a record 34 times.
It has captured every imaginable Arab and African championship and managed to finish in third place in last year's World Cup for clubs in Japan. In 2000 Ahli's membership cards began bearing the legend "African club of the 20th century", a designation awarded by the African football federation.
Several of Egypt's greats have worn its famed red shirt: Hussein Hegazi, Mokhtar El-Titch, Ahmed Mekkawi, Saleh Selim, Rifaat El-Fanagili, Taha Ismail and Mahmoud El-Khatib. It has been coached by 38 managers, 14 of them Egyptian. The foreigners have included Nandor Hidegkuti of the famed Magical Magyars, and Don Revie, a former England coach.
Facing Barcelona on Tuesday, Ahli could have used some of those names from the past.
الصفحة الأولى
43969 السنة 131-العدد 2007 ابريل 25 8 من ربيع الآخر 1428 هـ الأربعاء
مبارك يشارك الجماهير احتفالها بمئوية الأهلي ويشهد مباراة برشلونة
70 ألف متفرج استمتعوا بمباراة استعراضية بين نجوم العالم والأهلي
الضيوف لعبوا بفريقين مختلفين وسجلوا هدفين في كل شوط
عشاق الاهلى يتدفقون على الاستاد منذ الصباح
في لفتة مؤكدة عكست مدي حبه للرياضة والرياضيين, شارك الرئيس حسني مبارك أمس ملايين المصريين احتفالهم بمرور مائة عام علي انشاء الأهلي, وحضر الرئيس مبارك مباراة كرة القدم بين فريقي الأهلي وبرشلونة الاسباني التي اقيمت بهذه المناسبة في ستاد القاهرة, وانتهت بفوز برشلونة باربعة أهداف نظيفة بواقع هدفين في كل شوط.
كما حضر اللقاء الدكتور أحمد نظيف رئيس مجلس الوزراء وعدد من الوزراء.
وقد شهدت المباراة اقبالا جماهير كبير, حيث توافدت علي الاستاد من الصباح احجز مكانها في المدرجات التي اكتظت بالجماهير حاملين أعلام الأهلي.
وفور دخول الرئيس مبارك إلي المقصورة الرئيسية بالاستاد تعالت هتافات الجماهير لتحية سيادته ورد عليهم التحية, ثم عزفت الموسيقي العسكرية السلامين الوطنين المصري والاسباني.
وبدأت المباراة المرتقبة بحماس وهجوم من جانب الأهلي استمر لمدة15 دقيقة سرعان ما امتلك لاعبو برشلونة زمام المبادرة ونجحوا في تسجيل هدفين احرزهما سافيولا والناشئ يوخان كركيك16 عاما الذي أعلن عن نجوميته في ستاد القاهرة.
وقد لعب فريق برشلونة بفريقين مختلفين في كل شوط بدأ الأول بلاعبي الاحتياطي من البدلاء, وفي الثاني لعب بالتشكيلة الاساسية بالنجوم رونالدينهو وميس دايبتو وديكو وتورام وبايول.
ومال اداء الفريق في هذا الشوط الثاني إلي الاستعراض لمهاراتهم وبرغم ذلك نجحوا في تسجيل هدفين احرزهما صمويل ايتو.
وكانت الجماهير قد زحفت في الصباح إلي ستاد القاهرة واستقبلت الفريقين بحفاوة وترحيب, ونال فريق برشلونة ونجومه ترحيا غير مسبوق لفريق يزور القاهرة قبل المباراة ومنذ وصولهم لمطار القاهرة.
يذكر أن الفريقين التقيا من قبل عام1961 م حضرها مائة ألف متفرج.
وقد حضر هذه المباراة ما يقرب من80 ألف متفرج اضافة إلي نحو15 ألف تم احتجازهم خارج اسوار الاستاذ خوفا من الزيادة العددية عن السعة الرسمية للاستاد.
43970 السنة 131-العدد 2007 ابريل 26 9 من ربيع الآخر 1428 هـ الخميس
جوزيه يتحدث عن احتفالية برشلونة:
لعبنا مباراة سيئة.. والفريق بدا وكأنه يلعب الكرة لأول مرة!
الهزيمة في كرة القدم أمر طبيعي..
ولكنني لم أتوقع أن نؤدي بروح مسلوبي الإرادة
صرح مانويل جوزيه المدير الفني للأهلي بأن فريقه لعب أسوأ مبارياته هذا الموسم أمام برشلونة في إطار الاحتفالات بالمئوية.. وأضاف أن الخسارة4/ صفر أمر طبيعي ومن الممكن ان نخسر بأكثر من ذلك ولكنني حزين جدا بسبب الاداء الذي لم أتوقعه, فالخسارة واردة في كرة القدم ولايوجد فريق يفوز دائما وأوضح جوزيه أن اللاعبين كانوا شاردي الذهن وكأنهم يلعبون الكرة لأول مرة في حياتهم.. اذا كنا لعبنا أمام أفضل فريق في العالم وسط جماهير فان ذلك كان كفيلا بمنحنا الحافز والدافع للاجادة وتقديم عرض قوي يليق بنا كثالث العالم وأبطال افريقيا.
من يلعب دور الوصيف في الدوري ؟
الزمالك يحارب الاحباط أمام دراويش الإسماعيلي الليلة باستاد القاهرة
ميشيل يستبعد غير الملتزمين..
ونوفو يبحث عن الثأر ويعتبرها بروفة للوداد
في السابعة مساء اليوم يطلق طاقم الحكم الدولي الايطالي باولو تاجيليا فيتو ومعه مساعداه نيكولا نيكوليتي وما سيميليا توجريللي صافرة البداية لمباراة الزمالك مع الاسماعيلي المؤجلة من الاسبوع الـ22 لمسابقة دوري( اتصالات) والمباراة بين ثاني وثالث الدوري وفوز اي منهما بنتيجتها سيؤكد دموقعه في المركز الثاني ومن ثم المشاركة في الموسم الجديد ببطولة دوري رابطة الابطال الافريقي.
نظرية النسبية... في يوم المئوية!
كان تشريف الرئيس مبارك في مباراة المئوية مع برشلونة تكريما للأهلي ولتاريخه الوطني المعروف, ولإنجازاته, الحكاية ليست اهتماما من الرئيس بالرياضة وبالرياضيين, ولكنها أعمق من ذلك. انها الاهتمام بكل قيمة مصرية ومثلما استقبل80 ألف متفرج حضور الرئيس مبارك بالتحية وبالحب.. حدث ذلك من جانب ملايين المصريين الذين تابعوا الحدث عبر شاشات التليفزيون
