Al Ahly v Barcelona: ON Sport to show Joan Gamper Trophy match exclusively on TV

ON Sport will broadcast Al Ahly’s Joan Gamper Trophy meeting with Barcelona exclusively on television across the Middle East and North Africa.

The match will take place at Camp Nou on Wednesday, 19 August, with kick-off scheduled for 21:00 local time. United Sports Company initially announced that it had secured exclusive rights to show the fixture through its application before later obtaining television rights.

ON Sport confirmed the agreement on its official social media account, posting: “Exclusively in the Middle East and North Africa, Al Ahly and Barcelona’s match on ON Sport channels.”

The channel also said: “United Sports Company contracts with Barcelona and obtains the television rights for the match between Al Ahly and the Spanish champions in the Joan Gamper Trophy, broadcasting it on ON Sport channels at 9pm on Wednesday, 19 August.”

Al Ahly are preparing for the new season with a training camp in Spain, which is being held from 6 to 20 August and includes the prestigious friendly against Barcelona.

United Sports Company said it continued to work to meet the needs of Egyptian and Arab viewers by making major matches and competitions available across its platforms, allowing supporters to follow important sporting events.

Al Ahly began their Spanish preparations with a 3-0 victory over Spanish side Badalona in their first friendly of the camp.

Two of the club’s new arrivals scored in the match. Ali Mahmoud opened the scoring before Aktai Abdullah added a second, while Ahmed Sayed Zizo completed the victory. Al Ahly striker Sufyan Benguedida also missed a first-half penalty, which was saved by the goalkeeper.

The Al Ahly squad selected for the Spanish camp is:

Goalkeepers: Mohamed El Shenawy, Mostafa Shobeir, Hamza Alaa.

Defenders: Yassin Marei, Yasser Ibrahim, Hady Riad, Mohamed Hany, Amr El Gazar, Ahmed Eid, Ahmed Nabil Kouka, Youssef Belammari, Karim El Debes, Karim Fouad.

Midfielders: Marwan Attia, Emam Ashour, Ahmed Reda, Ahmed Khaled Kabaka, Omar Sayed Moawad, Mohamed Magdy Afsha, Ali Mahmoud, Omar El Saai, Taher Mohamed, Hussein El Shahat, Mohamed Abdallah, Ahmed Sayed Zizo, Achraf Bencharki.

Forwards: Aktai Abdullah, Sufyan Benguedida, Monsef Bekrar, Mohamed Raafat.

Al Ahly’s Joan Gamper Trophy meeting

The fixture will give Al Ahly a notable occasion in their history as they face Barcelona in the 61st edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy, one of European football’s best-known pre-season tournaments.

Although the competition is a friendly, it has a special place in Barcelona’s calendar and is regarded by the club’s supporters as an annual celebration marking the beginning of a new season. It is also the official event at which Barcelona presents its squad to the home fans.

The tournament was launched in 1966 on the initiative of then-Barcelona president Enric Llaudet. It honours the club’s Swiss founder, Joan Gamper, who established Barcelona in 1899 and laid the foundations for the organisation that would later become one of the world’s biggest football clubs.

The Joan Gamper Trophy has been held every year since its creation and became a regular part of Barcelona’s preparations before the start of the campaign.

In its early years, the tournament featured four teams, with semi-finals followed by a final and a match to decide third and fourth place. Barcelona changed the format in 1997, when the event became a single match between the Catalan club and an invited opponent. That format remains in place.