Cairo: Egypt’s prestigious club, Zamalek, Wednesday claimed their first football premier league title in 11 years, ending a successive eight-year monopoly by their traditional rivals Al Ahly.
Zamalek, nicknamed the White Knights, Wednesday night confirmed their win in this season’s championship by beating Talae Al Geish 3-2, extending a seven-point lead over Al Ahly with a tally of 83 points. Both Zamalek and Al Ahly still have one match in hand.
The Zamalek-Talae Al Geish encounter was played behind closed doors as authorities have barred fans from attending football fixtures after a stampede outside a stadium near Cairo in February left 19 people dead.
The win crowns the efforts of Portuguese coach Jesualdo Ferreira, who took over the White Knights’ helm in February.
Following the game, thousands of Zamalek’s jubilant supporters, carrying the team’s distinct banner, thronged the club’s premises in Cairo.
In a surprise move, Zamalek’s Chairman, Mortada Mansour, said he would quit.
“I have made millions of Zamalek fans happy. It’s time for departure,” Mansour said in impassioned TV remarks following the match.
He added that he would ask the club’s general assembly to meet to elect a new head. “I go leaving behind a European-level team.” Mansour, 63, was elected Zamalek’s chairman in March 2014 for a four-year term.
Mansour, a lawyer, has in recent months gotten locked in legal battles against hardcore football fans known as the ultras, and filed for a court ban on their associations.
