Little-known Taher elected chairman of Ahly, Egypt’s most successful club

Little-known Mahmoud Taher, a former Ahly board member, has become the club’s new chairman on Friday to succeed long-serving president Hassan Hamdy, who oversaw a fruitful 12-year reign that yielded 15 major titles for the football team.

Taher, who is a former squash player, comfortably beat off competition from businessman and former Ahly vice-president Ibrahim Al-Moalem, who was supported by Hamdy but could not win over the club’s general assembly in Friday’s elections.

Hamdy succeeded late chairman Saleh Selim, who is considered one of Ahly’s greatest-ever figures, in 2002 with a huge task of emulating his feat. For the club’s die-hard supporters, success only means triumphs for the football team.

Under Hamdy’s guidance, Ahly hardly disappointed, sweeping Egypt with seven consecutive Egyptian Premier League titles and dominating Africa with five Champions League crowns in one of the club’s best runs of all time.

However, the 64-year-old, nicknamed the “defence minister” in his playing days for his unrivalled capabilities of keeping opposing forwards at bay, ended his reign in controversy after being briefly detained on corruption charges stemming from his stint as the head of Al-Ahram’s advertising agency.

Taher will be burdened with keeping Ahly on the right track despite the club’s financial difficulties and recent poor results, with the Red Devils struggling to splash the cash on new, high-profile recruits, a strategy that defined their spell under Hamdy.

The Cairo giants are chasing an eighth successive league title and a third straight Champions League accolade.

In their first game following Taher’s election, they host Libya’s Ahly Benghazi in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 on Saturday with the aim of overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit.

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