The 2018 summer transfer window was witness to some major deals. Cristiano Ronaldo to
Juventus, Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City, and so on. While the big European league’s
usual suspects were in the thick of it, another team caught the attention of many: Pyramids
FC, a brand new club from Egypt, who set a new expenditure record for an African team,
and has one of the most extravagant football stories of the year.
Pyramids FC spent 40 million Euros building a squad from scratch – signing 23 players
– and a staff. But, how did a new Egyptian team spend more than Porto, Watford and Chinese
club Guangzhou Evergrande?
Pyramids FC was founded on the structure of Al Assiouty Sport, a club originally from
Beni Souef, that was established in 2008, played in the 2nd division and in 2014 was
promoted for the first time to the Egyptian Premier League.
Al Assiouty was never a serious a power in Egyptian football; with Al Ahly & Zamalek
there or thereabouts, one important club in Port Said - Al-Masry; and a couple of smaller
clubs that mainly cultivate the young local talents - El-Mokaweloon Al-Arab & Smouha.
In the summer of 2018, Al Assiouty was bought by the Saudi Billionaire Turki al-Sheikh – the
Saudi Arabia Sports minister, chairman of the Islamic Solidarity Sport Federation, and
a close friend of Mohamad Bin Salman - the Saudi crowned prince. All in all, one of the
most powerful figures in Asian & Middle Eastern football. Al Assiouty kept its assets, but
has since gone through some drastic changes.
They moved to Cairo and found a home at the ‘30th of June’ Stadium - a 30,000 seater
ground. The club’s name was changed to Pyramids FC – with an eye on the global potential
of such branding. The logo & the team colours were also changed, and Pyramids TV, the club’s
own TV station, was launched.
The location change left the club without a fanbase, so to get around this initially,
fans were hired and paid to support the team live at the games they were allowed to enter.
*[In Egypt fans haven’t been allowed to enter league games since the 2012 Port Said
disaster and the 2014 violent backlashes which caused multiple casualties].
The launch included a series of videos and advertisements setting the stage for the club’s
remarkable entrance into the Middle Eastern & African football sphere. With the buzz officially
created, Pyramids and Al-Sheikh began to announce their new signings.
Unusually for an Egyptian club, many the Pyramids’ incoming players came from the world’s most
popular market - Brazil. Carlos Eduardo from Goias, Ribamar from Atletico Paranaense and
Arthur from Chapecoense all arrived in exchange for figures of 5.2, 4 & 5.1 million euros
respectively.
More notable still was the deals made for Keno, the Palmeiras midfielder that arrived
for 8.6 million and Rodriguinho – the Corinthians attacking midfielder, who even made the shortlist
for the Brazil 2018 World Cup squad. No other African club has ever made comparable moves
in the Brazilian market.
International-level players from all over the region have signed, and more locally,
rival teams were raided. Pyramids also invested in a host of promising youngsters from teams
all over the league.
As for staff, the list is impressive: former Al-Ahly manager, Hossam Al-Badry was hired
as the club’s chairman, Ahmed Hassan signed as the spokesman and football team supervisor,
and Hady Khashaba is the new football director. Alberto Valentim, one of the most promising
coaches in Brazil, was signed as the head coach. And finally, Ricardo La Volpe, who
worked for Boca Juniors, Mexico and others, was hired as the football director.
Badry declared that “the Pyramids enterprise is focused on improving and encouraging progress
in Egyptian football”. But was that really the reason for all that investment? Perhaps
partially, but at the heart of Pyramids FC’s creation, there’s a story of respect, political
revenge and power. It highlights many of the issues in the Egyptian game, and it focuses
on one important man - Turki al-Sheikh.
It’s been almost two years since the controversial young Saudi Turki al-Sheikh, entered the Middle
Eastern football world in storm. Since then, he’s become very active in a variety of
fields. He improved and developed the professional level of the Saudi league; he partially opened
stadiums in Saudi Arabia for female supporters and invested in & planned many of the programs
developing football in the whole region.
At the same time, al-Sheikh was the architect of a handful of controversial football stories
over the past year.
He sent 10 Saudi players to Spanish clubs in a program that failed to improve the Saudi
national team for the World Cup. He was in charge of the controversial signing of his
associate, the Bolivian coach Julio Baldivieso, for the Palestinian national team, despite
the fact they were in their best ever era under a promising local gaffer. And he somehow
convinced FIFA to hold an impromptu Gulf Cup in Kuwait, despite the fact that the country
was still on probation after a ban for governmental intervention in local football.
In some cases, his work has been seen as refreshing and positive, and in others, negative and
worthy of suspicion. But what led to his current involvement in Egyptian football?
Last season, Al-Ahly - Egypt & Africa’s most famous and decorated football club - was
drowning in debt. Having faced similar situations before during the club’s 111-year history,
the club’s board, democratically elected, had usually handled every crisis in-house.
This time, allegedly, the debts and tensions were so deep & complicated, that an external
solution was required. And, according to club sources and various Egyptian journalists,
the board got in touch with Turki al-Sheikh, who had expressed his appreciation for the
club in the past. The hope was that his financial support would save the board from losing control
on the club.
Al-Sheikh agreed, and in return for his donation asked to become the club’s honorary president.
Mahmoud ‘Bibo’ El-Khatib, Al-Ahly chairman, has approved the move, and immediately began
discussing with al-Sheikh the future transfers that they wanted to complete.
Things seemed to go well. Al-Sheikh even persuaded the famous Argentinean coach Ramon Diaz to
take the Al-Ahly manager’s position.
The ‘Ahlawys’, Al-Ahly fanatics, were delighted regarding the news of the incoming
coach, but according to reports, Al-Sheikh then guided Diaz into signing a lucrative
contract at a Saudi club instead. This didn’t go down well.
Up to the beginning of this decade, Egypt was seen as the leader of the Sunni countries
in the Arab world. Since the Arab Spring, the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, the civil
war and the recent Egyptian revolution, the country has lost its status as the most powerful
& influential Sunni country in the region - to Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, in recent years Egypt has economically relied on Saudi Arabia, who have become something
of an insurance policy in the current climate of the region. This fact has fostered a wave
of hostility from some in Egypt towards Saudi gestures & investments in the country. The
Diaz story added to these existing frustrations.
Al-Ahly fans were furious with al-Sheikh and some began to protest his activity within
the club. The fact that he is a foreigner, especially from Saudi Arabia, only fanned
the ‘flames’.
Ultimately, Al-Sheikh decided to leave the club, saying he didn’t want to stay in a
place in which he didn’t feel wanted. He also claimed that he’d spent around 13 million
Euros financially supporting the club. Two weeks later, he bought Al-Assiouty Sport and
began its revolution at the club.
In addition, he then filed a lawsuit against Al-Ahly, requesting that the club return his.
“I was keen on making Al Ahly and their fans my top priorities and I followed their
worries and ambitions with much interest,” al-Sheikh wrote on his Facebook page. “But
I am disappointed by the disrespectful way people have treated me here, despite my efforts
to help”.
Everything was set for a battle on & off the pitch between al-Sheikh and Al-Ahly. Though,
a week prior to the League’s opening matchday, he surprisingly decided to revoke the lawsuit.
“Everyone has been forgiven. I have been attacked by some of the masses and media,
but I confirm my appreciation and respect to all Al-Ahly fans,” he said to local media.
But al-Sheikh’s controversies continued: He sacked Pyramids’ coach after 9 games
(of which they had lost just one). And he revealed his desire to renew the Saudi-Egyptian
Super Cup, a regional club competition which was in a 15-year hiatus. He planned to get
the Saudi champions, Al-Hilal, to host Al-Ahly in a prestigious event in Riyadh.
During a game soon after, Al-Ahly fans, in response, chanted from the stands about Al-Sheikh.
They downplayed the importance of the Super Cup, saying the African Cup was more important.
They also insulted al-Sheikh’s mother using abusive language.
For Al-Sheikh, this was the final straw. He quickly decided to leave all of his businesses
in Egypt. The news broke on Pyramids TV, the football club's in-house channel, stating
that the Saudi had decided to “withdraw permanently” from his new enterprise. Despite
his decision, Al-Sheikh promised to respect all contracts of the team’s players, staff,
as well as the channel’s crew.
At the moment, Al-Sheikh is still technically the owner of Pyramids FC, but has declared
that he will not invest any further in the aspiring project, or in Egypt. But Pyramids
FC is indeed an aspiring project, and the story behind it sheds a light on the way that
things are currently running in Egyptian & Middle Eastern football.