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اELITE Issue 15, january 2020 page 16

Advertising agencies and
egyptian footbal market 21

Omar Khaled
Fourth Year, Economics

Advertising agencies have greatly affected Egyptian footb all, and clubs are currently achieving high returns tha t contribute to raising the level of
the game and competitions, and creating another case of competition between fans off the field, and away from th e results achieved by their
teams, as they boast the number of sponsors that their c lubs haveBut the talk here will touch on the largest sp onsorships for the Egyptian ball
during the last two decades: Al-Ahram and Presentation , th AlAhram and its control until the revolution, and the spread of many problems later,
and Presentation, which quickly escalated the missile wit h huge capital and A strange force that made it the sole monopolist of sport in Egypt,
whether in sponsoring clubs or even in satellite broadcasting, ther e are many questions revolving around this company and its sour ce of strength
Initially speaking about the Al-Ahram agency that sponsore d the Egyptian football for a long time until 2011, the Al-Ahram agency was
responsible for the rights to sponsor the Football and Clubs Association, led by Al-Ahly, Zamalek and Ismaili, but the agency was subjected to
numerous accusations, including bias towards the Al-Ahly Club, given that The head of the agency was "Hassan Ha mdi", head of Al-Ahly Club,
and the "Corruption of Alahram case.

The accusations were public and express to the agency by changing the path of many stars to Al-Ahly by way o f promises that guarantee them a
great income in addition to the millions that they rece ive from Al-Ahly. The traditional club Zamalek in welfar e rights But in an interview with
"Hisham Zayed", director of sports marketing for Al-Ah ram, he responded to these allegations, saying:I constan tly read that the agency is
helping the Al-Ahly club in its contracts with the playe rs, and that the advertising contract is the one that is most likely to be signed by Al-Ahly,
and to confirm that the agency has not signed an adve rtising contract with a player throughout its history, a nd we have not brought any
advertisements to any player in Al-Ahly, contrary to wha t is published. Whoever has a contract, let him show it, and the contract between us and
Al-Ahly stipulates that we use 6 players annually for a dvertising, and even this item has not been exploited .. T he real problem is that some
people perceive that Al-Ahly and Al-Ahram Agency are one entity because of Hassan Hamdi.

With the start of the return of auctions to the sponsorship of the Egyptian Football Association, the Presentation C ompany started to appear
through its offer of 140 million pounds, which is much g reater than the last decade between the Federation and the agency (40 million pounds).
From here, the "Company" began with a rocket speed th at climbs into the sports market. Egyptian, the company h as monopolies, and huge offers
that amount to hundreds of millions to buy broadcasting rights, the company offers Al-Ahly to pay its debts in order for Al-Ahly satellite channel
to continue broadcasting, and the company defeats the E gyptian TV show to obtain the right to broadcast the E gyptian League (2015-2016) ), As
it becomes effective in the results of the Egyptian leag ue After I offered players and rewards, upon winning. But the company raised many
questions about it, with the huge capital that it moves in, and its very organized steps to monopolize many aspects of the Egyptian sports market,
where the Egyptian newspaper “Al-Ahram Sports ” published in July 2014 what stipulated that there are many stories that are told From the
mysterious company and its rocket rise in the sporting atmosphere, buying TV broadcasts and sponsorship with out clear bids or competitions
from other companies in earnest, as all companies and ag encies announce withdrawal before them, but that the la rgest agencies in Egypt will not
continue before them in any bidding, which made some c onfirm that the company Backed by Pa Reaction of the c haracters we do not know, and
Egyptian officials have things sports facilitators.

Most of the tournaments held in Egypt since 2014, accor ding to Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi, testify that the company i s clearly trying to control the
Football Association, by obtaining its own sponsorship ri ghts, after it submitted individually a financial offer, and forced all companies to
withdraw, even those that Bidding enters to legalize t hem only, and Presentation alone is the player in the Eg yptian sports market Despite this
clear monopoly from the Presentation Company of the Egy ptian ball, it has played a distinguished role in the Egyp tian football, whether in
developing the league competition or even hosting spor ting events, the most recent of which is the African N ations Cup for adults and youth, but
that suspicious control raises questions about who supports this co mpany And who provides funding for it

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