CAIRO: Al Ahly clinched a record-extending 45th Egyptian Premier League title with a 6-0 rout of Pharco after Wesam Abou Ali scored four goals in their final game on Wednesday.
Abou Ali also provided the assist for the fifth goal, scored by Hussein Elshahat, with Imam Ashour wrapping up the win in added time as Al Ahly earned a third consecutive league crown.
The win brings Al Ahly’s tally to 58 points, two ahead of their closest rivals Pyramids.
Local media reported that Pyramids have gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport demanding three points to be deducted from the champions for failing to show up for a match against arch-rivals Zamalek.
The Egyptian Professional Football Club Association had punished Al Ahly with a three-point deduction for not playing the match in March – after the club’s request for foreign officials was turned down – but backed down after the Cairo-based club complained to the local Olympic Committee.
Egypt’s Al Ahly earn record-extending 45th league title
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Egypt’s Al Ahly earn record-extending 45th league title
Nantes axe coach Kantari, turn to club hero Halilhodzic
- The 73-year-old Halilhodzic was a star striker for Nantes in the 1980s
- Halilhodzic’s first match in charge will be against Strasbourg
NANTES, France: Struggling Nantes fired coach Ahmed Kantari on Tuesday and announced veteran Vahid Halilhodzic would take over “until the end of the season.”
Kantari was hired on December 10 but lost eight out of 10 Ligue 1 matches, concluding with a 1-0 home loss to Angers.
Nantes are 17th in the table facing automatic relegation.
The 73-year-old Halilhodzic was a star striker for Nantes in the 1980s and led the club to the 1983 French title with 27 goals. He had an earlier stint as the club’s coach, when he took over eight games into the 2018-19 season.
His long management career has also included stops at Lille, Rennes, Paris Saint-Germain, Raja Casablanca, Dynamo Zagreb, Trabzonspor (twice) and coaching the national teams of Japan, Algeria, Ivory Coast and finally Morocco, where his three year stint ended in 2022 with what appeared to be retirement.
Halilhodzic’s first match in charge will be against Strasbourg, contenders for European qualification, on the March 22, before two crucial away games at last-placed Metz and then Auxerre who are currently two points and one place above Nantes in the relegation-playoff spot.
