Pyramids’ Fiston Mayele jumping high
For decades, just two teams, powerhouses Ahly and Zamalek, have dominated the Egyptian Premier League, between them winning the title 58 times since its founding in 1948 (Ahly 44, Zamalek 14), reports Alaa Abdel-Ghani.
But in this 2025-2026 season, although Ahly and Zamalek are still in the mix, with any one of them predicted to win the crown, other relatively new teams are giving the traditional centres of power a run for their money.
Although at the time of writing, not all 21 league teams had played the same number of games, a donnybrook could be in the making.
After 17 games, a surprising Ceramica Cleopatra lead the pack with 35 points. Zamalek are second with 34 points but with a game in hand. At third are Pyramids, tied with Zamalek which have a better goal difference. Defending champions Ahly are in fourth with 33 points from 16 games.
While Ahly and Zamalek are used to placing high in the standings, what is most striking is how successful Ceramica have been, having been founded only in 2007. Observers don’t see the team having enough gas to go all the way to the title, but so far so good.
Pyramids, too, which came into being a year later when they were originally called Al-Assiouti, have made remarkable strides, finishing second last year, just two points behind Ahly.
On the side, Pyramids also won the African Champions League.
For the second consecutive season, the league is employing a playoff system.
Under the new set-up, this season, instead of the teams playing each other home and away, every team will initially play 20 games, meeting each other only once.
After that, the league will split up into two groups. It’s not clear how the groups will be divided evenly when the number of teams is 21, an odd number. At any rate, the teams will be split into groups A and B.
The teams in each group will play each other once. The teams in Group A will not play against those in Group B.
The winner of the league title will be the one who finishes first in Group A. If at the end, two or more teams are tied in points, the tie-breaker will be who did better in face-to-face encounters and if that doesn’t work, then goal difference.
There’s everything to play for in Group A and almost nothing in Group B. The top team in Group A wins the championship and the next three positions are reserved for appearances in the African Champions League and Confederation Cup.
The Group B teams are simply playing basically to avoid relegation.
One important point to keep in mind: the teams will go to the group stage with the number of points they collected in the first 20 games intact. Whatever number of points they win in the group stage will simply be added on to what they originally have.
This is unlike most professional leagues in football and other sports in the West in which the regular season is one thing and playoffs the other. At the start of the playoffs, the teams start from scratch, with no points. In the new-look Egyptian league, you keep what you already have.
The new Egyptian League system is loosely styled on the Belgian Pro League.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 February, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: