Since the beginning of the Egyptian football competitions, the companies' clubs have contributed to making the history of the game locally, as well-established clubs such as El Swayka El Sway, Tram, Plastic, Al Qanat, Al-Tarsana, Ghazl El-Mahalla and others have participated in various tournaments, even before the start of the general league championship that began in 1948.

The companies' clubs previously succeeded in competing with Al-Ahly and Zamalek and winning the league and domestic cup championships, and made a fan base that pledged allegiance to them to turn into popular clubs encouraged by thousands, filling the stands in their matches and singing about the team's players and championships.

At the head of the clubs of the companies that created real fans is the "Tersana" club of the Egyptian General Company for Irrigation Workshops, where the club won the Egypt Cup in 1923, and was the second Egyptian club to win that cup after Zamalek and before the Al-Ahly club.

The club, called Shawakish, was not satisfied with this time, but won the Cup 6 times and won the General League once in 1963, and witnessed the height of popularity until the fans crawled to its stadium in Mit Uqba in the thousands thanks to club legend Hassan El Shazly, one of the most prominent scorers of Egyptian football throughout its history.

The team of the Mahalla Spinning Company, which was founded by Talaat Harb, "the father of the Egyptian economy", succeeded in making a great popular industry among the people of the city of Mahalla in the Gharbia governorate, and the team nicknamed "the peasants" before turning into "the leader of the peasants", after it became the most popular club in the Egyptian Delta region after Winning the Egyptian League in 1973, and reaching the final of the African Club Champions League in 1974.

Unlike its peers, the "Arab Contractors" team has not succeeded since its inception in 1973 in creating a fan base despite achieving many local and continental championships, especially the League, the Cup, and the African Club Championship, the three-time cup champions (1982, 1983, 1996).

Some attributed the failure of the club, which was called Wolves of the Mountain, to gain a fan base to the venue of the club established by the company in the Green Mountain area of ​​Cairo, evidence of the strength of the largest contracting company at that time.

Unsuccessful experience

At the end of the twentieth century, corporate clubs re-appeared timidly in the Egyptian League. Clubs such as the Dina Farms Club, owned by Dina Agricultural Investments Company, and the former Goldi Club, owned by businessman Ahmed Bahgat, appeared, and these clubs did not last long in the league of lights and fame. She did not return to the third and fourth section patrols, announcing the failure of the experiment.

With the beginning of the new century, corporate clubs and government bodies invaded the league championship, and these bodies and companies allocated huge budgets to contract with major players and coaches, and the Ministry of Petroleum was at the head of these bodies with the support of Minister Sameh Fahmy, who opened his coffers to 3 petroleum clubs, which are Enppi, Petrojet and Assiut Petroleum.

The armed forces also entered the line and launched the Vanguard of the Army, Border Guard and Military Production Clubs, and the Ministry of Interior joined them, which supported the Police Union and Interior Clubs.

Governmental cement companies followed the wave, and Asyut cement and Suez cement clubs appeared, Telecom Egypt did not lose sight of the scene, so Telecom Egypt Club and its brother appeared on Beni Suef's telephones.

This stage witnessed a public and legal attack on the bodies and companies' clubs, where Hisham Abd Rabbo, the lawyer in cassation, submitted a report to the Attorney General against the Minister of Petroleum and the heads of his clubs accusing them of wasting public money and facilitating its seizure, and Amr Abdel Hadi, the lawyer, filed a lawsuit against those responsible for Egyptian football, demanding it The Egyptian League competition was invalidated, and corporate clubs dissolved to waste millions on corporate clubs instead of the people benefiting from it.

Despite the achievement of some of these clubs for the championships, where both Enppi and Haras El Hodoud won the Egyptian Cup twice, these clubs did not achieve any fan base and remained in the ivory tower away from the masses that were angered by the failure of their popular clubs and their decline to the lowest levels in which other companies compete also.

Without an audience

After the approval of the new sports law, a number of private clubs appeared, headed by Wadi Degla, whose owner Majid Sami succeeded in promoting him to the Premier League.

Al-Assiouti club also made a quantum leap in the history of private clubs after Turki Al-Sheikh, head of the Saudi General Authority for Sports at the time, bought it a bid by Al-Ahly club president Mahmoud Al-Khatib following disagreements between the two parties, before leaving the club to Emirati businessman Salem Al-Shamsi.

The club's budget, since Al-Sheikh's purchase of it in 2018, has approached one billion Egyptian pounds, and it is also content with biding the Al-Ahly team and winning it on more than one occasion and has not achieved any championship.

In its new season, the Egyptian League witnesses the emergence of new companies' clubs such as Al-Ahly Bank and Ceramica Cleopatra, which opened their coffers to support their teams in their first years in the Spotlight League, as Ceramica Cleopatra contracted 21 new players, while the National Bank contracted 20 players, and the two teams included 9 foreign professionals and a number A large number of former Al-Ahly and Zamalek stars in deals that cost the two companies' coffers hundreds of millions.

Amr Mostafa Kamel, a sports investment expert and former CEO of the Misr Clearing Club, believes that what happened with the "Pyramids" team caused a historic shift for the ball in Egypt.

He predicted - in statements to Al-Borsa newspaper - that within 10 years, half of the league clubs will disappear and clubs that make great popularity thanks to the stars who will contract with them and the achievements they will achieve, and financial capabilities will greatly control the clubs' future and conditions.

On the contrary, Majid Sami, founder of Wadi Degla Club, one of the most prominent private clubs, launched an attack on social media on the clubs of the newly emerging companies to the Premier League, calling on companies to return to sponsorship contracts and leave sports competition to mass clubs.