A Battle for the Ages: The Verdict is Yet to Be Written

the 'derby' match

Who among us did not wait for the 'derby' match between Zamalek and Al-Ahly? 

It’s when we plan to watch it together and plan to watch it with whomever we feel happy with. Most importantly, the opinions that always differ on who will win the game and who will participate. In every Egyptian home, you will see the love of football across generations. The grandfather, the father, and the son, they all have a passion for this game, which has become more than just a game, but has become an axis of our lives that gets renewed every moment. Zamalek and Al-Ahly, a love that will never end in Egypt. When we go back to the past, we will see that the controversial matches between Al-Ahly and Zamalek are countless. The 6-0 match for Zamalek team remains the most controversial match and everyone and the media are talking about it till now, so what happened in this match?

Every year on June 2, the issue about the date of the 1942 match between Al-Ahly and Zamalek is reignited. Zamalek supporters celebrate by confirming that their team lost to Al-Ahly 6 goals to nothing. Discussing this meeting causes a great deal of debate on social media and in satellite channel discussions, which then develop into stories, denials, and confirmations that are shared via images and historical narratives from both sides. After the Whites' crushing 6/1 loss to Al-Ahly in 2002, Zamalek had to look back in time and remember the tale of the 6-0 match.

the 'derby' match

To exact revenge for the six-goal victory, the current generations of the illustrious Zamalek Club were unable to face Al-Ahly's wrath in the Jose and subsequent eras. As a result, they turned to history, where the response was simpler, more profound, more poetic, and recorded in newspaper articles from almost 70 years ago.

On such a day, Zamalek supporters take advantage of what is known on social media as "tahfil," when Al-Ahly supporters take advantage of any chance or occasion to criticize Zamalek in football, whether on or off the pitch.

Although the Al-Ahly narrative did not refute the team's six-goal loss to zero, it did discuss the circumstances surrounding the incident include more information that made Al-Ahly supporters proud of that memory, and characterize the team's actions at the time as patriotic.

Haidar Pasha

According to Al-Ahly's account, in 1943 the club asked Haidar Pasha, the head of the Egyptian Football Association and the head of the Mixed Club at the same time, for permission to travel to Palestine and play a match there in support of the Palestinian revolution against the British mandate and the Israeli immigration to Palestine at that time.

According to the tale, Haidar Pasha disregarded the directive and warned Mokhtar El-Tetsh, the captain of the Al-Ahly club, that "if you travel, I will issue a decision to suspend the entire team." El-Tetsh answered, "Pasha, we'll go."

Fouad Serag El-Din

According to the account, after the Al-Ahly players' passports were confiscated, Captain Mokhtar El-Tetsh turned to Interior Minister Fouad Serag El-Din, who was able to secure replacement passports and authorize their travel under the guise of the Cairo Youth Club without the Football Association's consent. Haidar Pasha then mandated that Zamalek, with its then-current hitting power, and Al-Ahly, without its stars, play the final King's Cup match. Al-Ahly lost the game 6/0 while playing with a young and junior squad.