Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Egyptian club Ismaili SC suffered one of the darkest moments in its history on Tuesday after officially being relegated from the Egyptian Premier League following a 2-1 defeat against Wadi Degla SC in the tenth round of the relegation stage.
The loss confirmed Ismaili’s drop from Egypt’s top flight for only the second time in the club’s history, ending a remarkable 69-year stay among the country’s elite football clubs.
Wadi Degla secured victory in a tense encounter that further deepened the crisis surrounding the former African champions. The win lifted Wadi Degla to 48 points at the top of the relegation group standings, while Ismaily remained rooted to the bottom with just 19 points.
The result mathematically sealed Ismaily’s relegation to the Egyptian Professional League, with the club now unable to close the gap to safety despite three rounds remaining in the season.
Even if Ismaili were to win all of their remaining matches, the team would only reach 28 points, still insufficient to climb to 11th place and avoid relegation.
The relegation marks the end of one of the most dramatic collapses in Egyptian football history for a club long regarded as one of the country’s traditional giants. Known as “The Dervishes,” Ismaili had previously been relegated only once before, during the 1957-1958 season.
Following that drop, the club spent four consecutive seasons in the second division before returning to the top flight in the 1962-1963 campaign, beginning a decades-long presence in Egyptian football’s highest tier.
For generations of supporters in the canal city of Ismailia, the club represented one of Egypt’s proudest football institutions, producing legendary players and becoming the first Egyptian club to win the African Champions Cup in 1969.
Tuesday’s defeat now writes a painful new chapter in the club’s history, as fans face the reality of seeing Ismaily outside the Premier League for the first time in nearly seven decades.
