Egypt’s Al Ahly unveils plans for a new football stadium in Cairo

At the recently held Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm El Sheikh (March 13-15 2015) Al Ahly Sports Club announced its plan for a new stadium in Cairo.

The project presentation at the event revealed that the new football stadium will have a capacity of 60,000. The arena is jointly designed by AS&P – Albert Speer & Partners GmbH in Frankfurt and GRID Cairo supported by ARUP Frankfurt.

Al Ahly had earlier hinted that the new stadium will cost nearly 3 billion Egyptian pounds ($393.28 million), according to media reports.

“We have to look for investment in sports for the first time in the history of Egypt,” Al Ahly’s president Mahmoud Taher announced at EEDC.

Taher has been earlier quoted by local Egyptiam media as saying that “progress has been achieved in the negotiations with some investors on this score”. Taher did not rule out naming the new stadium after the investing company, like the Stadium of Bayern Munich Club of Germany.

Earlier in January this year, Al Ahly unveiled plans to establish a joint-stock football company. This would make it the Egypt’s first independent club to meet FIFA standards for professional football teams on budget transparency and financial sustainability.

Al Ahly Club, which was founded in 1907, is owned by the state and hence cannot be traded, board member Mohamed Abdel-Wahab was quoted as saying by Ahram Online. “This is why we are creating a new football company to become a subsidiary of the club,” he explained.

Cairo-based investment bank CI Capital will arrange the Initial Public Offering (IPO), according to media reports.

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