BBC Sport Academy | Football | Features (original) (raw)

This is Egypt's fantastic derby and takes place in the capital Cairo.

Over 90,000 fans fill the neutral Cairo International stadium demanding victory from their team.

Who are they then?
Al-Ahly and Zamalek are two of Africa's most successful clubs.

Caf (Africa's version of Uefa) named Ahly Africa's club of the century in 2000, with their domination in the 1990s just pushing them ahead of their arch-rivals.

The two clubs are not just the two best teams in a country, but in an entire continent - and by a huge margin.

Is it a big rivalry?

Kenny survived the experience!

The rivalry is so fierce that foreign referees are always brought in for the games. It is assumed an Egyptian ref would always support one of the sides.

Scotland's Kenny Clark - a veteran of four Old Firm games - was chosen for a clash in 2001, following the refusal of six European federations to make a referee available!

The action in this derby gets so serious sometimes that it has had to be abandoned four times, most recently in 1999.

French Referee Mark Batta showed a red card to Zamalek player Ayman Abdel Aziz after just two minutes of play for a tackle from behind.

The Zamalek players responded by walking off the pitch in protest and refused to continue.

As a result of the increasing number of disturbances, the games are no longer played at the club's home grounds but at the neutral Cairo stadium.

Hassan's twin brother Ibrahim is at the club

And if one of the players is considering switching clubs then they better hear about Hossam Hassan.

One of the world's most capped players had played for Ahly for 16 years and then moved clubs across the city in 2001.

When the teams met again, Hassan had bottles thrown at him and the match had to be delayed by three minutes. Not a transfer to be taken lightly!

Who's the top dog?
Ahly's golden age of derby results was in the 1950s when they beat Zamalek eight times. Zamalek hit back in the 1960s when they won four times.

But in the past 10 years Ahly have reigned supreme in Egypt, winning the championship for the past seven years!