Egyptian Premier League

The Egyptian Premier League (الدوري المصري الممتاز) is an Egyptian professional league for football clubs and represents the top flight of Egyptian football. The championship consists of nineteen competing teams in a home and away league system. It is currently known as the Etisalat Egyptian Premier League, after the Emirate communications company signed a sponsorship deal with the Egyptian FA. No more than three foreign players are allowed on any side in the Egyptian Premier League.

During the 2011 Egyptian Protests the Egyptian Premier League was paused until 6th March, but was postponed until April 14, when play finally resumed.

Competition
There are 19 clubs in the Egyptian Premier League. The Football Season, which lasts from August to May, is interleaved with a Six-Weeks Winter break that lasts from the end of December to February. During the course of the season, each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 36 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then the direct confrontation,then goal difference, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned champion. If points are equal,the direct confrontation, the goal difference and then goals scored determine the winner. The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Division II League, and the top three teams from the three groups into the Division II league , together, are promoted in their place.

Sponsorship
The Egyptian Premier League has been sponsored since 2005. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:

2005–2007: Vodafone Egyptian Premier League.

2007–present: Etisalat Egyptian Premier League.

Media coverage
There are a lot of channels that transfer the Egyptian league like: modern sport, modern kora, channel 2, alhayat 2, dream, nile sport, almasriya,channel 3 and alahly tv. Every channel from this channels paid 8 millions {l.v} to transfer the Egyptian league except the Egyptian television (channel 2, nile sport, and almasriya) which had his own deal.

Clubs
The five most popular Egyptian clubs are Al-Ahly, Zamalek SC, Ismaily, Al-Ittihad Al-Sakndary and Al-Masry. Also there is a historically established club named Tersana.

Members for 2011–12
A total of 64 clubs have played in the Egyptian Premier League from its inception in 1948-49 up to and including the 2011–12 season. But only two clubs have been members of the Egyptian Premier League for every season since its inception .There are Al-Ahly and Al-Zamalek.

The following 19 clubs will compete in the Egyptian Premier League during the 2011–12 season.

a: Founding member of the Egyptian Premier League

b: Never been relegated from Egyptian Premier League

c: First Time in Egyptian Premier League

d: Ittihad El-Shorta appear in 1974-75 season as El-Shorta

e: Haras El Hodood (Border Guards) appear in 1963-65 seasons as El-Soahel

Stadiums
The recently opened Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria (capacity: 86,000) is currently mainly used for international competition, as it was constructed as part of Egypt's failed bid to land the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, there is speculation that League sides from Alexandria will eventually call it their home grounds.

Double titles (League & cup in the same season)

 * Al-Ahly : 13 times.
 * Zamalek SC : 1 time

All time top goalscorers
Last updated December 25, 2010.

For a full list of clubs see List of football clubs in Egypt.