Egypt. Premier League 2026/27: format, fixtures and the Algerians of Egyptian football
The Egyptian Premier League is the top division of Egyptian football ⚽. Founded in 1948, it is playing its 68th edition in 2026/27, run by the association of Egyptian professional clubs, while the national federation remains the Egyptian Football Association. Twenty clubs take part this season: Al Ahly, Zamalek, Pyramids, Al Masry, Ceramica Cleopatra, Smouha, Al Ittihad Alexandria, Al Mokawloon Al Arab, El Gouna, Ghazl El Mahalla, Modern Sport, National Bank of Egypt, Tala'ea El Gaish, Wadi Degla, ZED, Al Sharqiya Enppi, Suez Petrojet and the three promoted sides, El Qanah, Asyut Petroleum and Abou Qir Fertilizers.
A league played in two stages
The first stage is a single round robin: every club plays the other nineteen once, 190 games in all. The table then splits the field in two. The top six play for the title and for the CAF places in the Champions League and the Confederation Cup. The other fourteen fight to stay up, and four of them go down to the second division.
The format changes almost every year, and this is the third season in a row with two stages. In 2025/26, 21 clubs took part and seven reached the title group; in 2026/27 there are 20, and only six make it into that final pool. With four clubs relegated and three promoted, the league is being reduced step by step.
The 2026/27 calendar
Stage | Dates |
|---|---|
Fixture draw | 5 August 2026 |
Round 1 | Friday 21 to Sunday 23 August 2026, ten games |
International break | 21 September to 6 October 2026 |
Restart with round 6 | from 11 October 2026 |
End of the first stage (19 rounds) | 20 February 2027 |
Start of the second stage | Monday 8 March 2027 |
End of the season | May 2027, date not announced |
The October restart opens with a derby: round 6 features the season's first Cairo derby, Zamalek against Al Ahly, scheduled for Sunday 11 October 2026 at the Cairo International Stadium. Games are played in the evening, and rounds can still be moved during the season. The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations runs from 19 June to 17 July 2027 in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, after the planned end of the league season.
Zamalek, 2025/26 champions
Zamalek won the 15th title in their history in 2025/26, their first since 2021/22. It all came down to 20 May 2026, the last round of the title group: a draw was enough, and Zamalek beat Ceramica Cleopatra 1:0 with an Odai Dabbagh goal in the 8th minute. The same evening, Pyramids beat Smouha 2:1 and Al Ahly won 2:0 against Al Masry, which changed nothing at the top.
Final standings: Zamalek 56 points, Pyramids 54, Al Ahly 53 and Ceramica Cleopatra 44. Last season, first-stage points were carried over in full: going into the title group, Zamalek and Pyramids had 43 points each, with Zamalek ahead on goal difference. Zamalek and Pyramids represent Egypt in the 2026/27 CAF Champions League, Al Ahly in the Confederation Cup. The top scorer was Ahmed Yasser Rayyan of National Bank of Egypt with 13 goals.
Algerians in the Egyptian league
At the start of the season, squads included eight Algerian players. Monsef Bakrar joined Al Ahly this summer from Dinamo Zagreb, Nadhir Benbouali signed for Pyramids, and Al Masry have two Algerians: Abderrahim Deghmoum and Kheireddine Toual, who arrived from ES Sétif. Squads can still change in the winter transfer window.
In all, the clubs registered around a hundred foreign players from 29 countries, 41 of them from Arab countries. On the benches, seventeen head coaches are Egyptian; the three foreigners are Moroccans Hussein Ammouta (Al Ahly) and Mohamed Amine Benhachem (Modern Sport) and South Africa's Rhulani Mokwena (Pyramids).
Zamalek's spring also crossed paths with an Algerian club: USM Alger denied them the 2025/26 Confederation Cup in a penalty shoot-out, after each side had won a leg 1:0. Four days after that lost final, Zamalek were celebrating the league title.
Betting on Egypt. Premier League from Algeria
Every round has its own set of pre-match betting pages: result, double chance, total goals, handicap and both teams to score. The second stage changes what each game means: at the top, six clubs play for the title and the African places, at the bottom, fourteen try to avoid the four relegation spots. The 2026/27 title is available as an outright until the end of the season, and relegation and top-six places give the late rounds of the first stage real weight.
On match nights, in-play football updates the odds of the Egyptian fixtures as the game goes on. The Football section also carries the Algerian league and the CAF Champions League, and the full programme lets you mix several leagues in one accumulator.
The account is kept in Algerian dinars (DZD) 💳: BaridiMob or RedotPay to deposit and withdraw, Binance Pay or USDT on the crypto side. Signing up with 1xBet gives access to every round of the Egyptian league.