Almahalla Sports Club ( ar, نادي المحلة الرياضي) is a

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwest of Libya o ...

. The club won two

Libyan Premier League The Libyan Premier League ( ar, الدوري الليبي الممتاز) is the men's top professional football division of the Libyan football league system. Administered by the Competition Organizing Committee in the Libyan Football Federatio ...

titles in a successful period in the late 1990s. The club finished 2nd in 1997, and followed this with two back-to-back titles, in seasons 1997–98 and 1998–99. The club's home strip is orange, and the away strip is black.

Glory Years: Late 1990s

During the late 1990s, Almahalla started to build a strong team. They got considerably stronger as the decade, and obtained a mid-table finish in the 1996–97 season. Just one season later, the club, barely 20 years old, and recently promoted, won the title, giving them a place in the 1999 CAF Champions League. They defeated the Chadian champions AS Coton Chad 3–2 in the preliminary round, losing the first leg away in

N'Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements''. The city serves as the centre of economic activity in Chad. Meat, fish and cotton processing are the ...

2–0 on January 31, 1999. However, two weeks later, they won 3–0 in the second leg in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

to set up a First Round tie with eventual finalists

ES Tunis Es, ES, or similar may refer to: Arts and entertainment * An alternate name for the musical note E♭ (E-flat) * ''E's'', a manga series by Satoru Yuiga * ''Es'' (film), the German title of ''It'', a 1966 West German film directed by Ulrich Scham ...

. The first leg at the

11 June Stadium The Tripoli International Stadium ( ar, ملعب طرابلس) is a multi-purpose stadium in Tripoli, Libya. It can hold 65,000 spectators. It is the main venue used by the Libyan national football team in its FIFA World Cup and African Nations C ...

was a tense affair, with the Tunisian side winning 2–1. Two weeks later they lost 2–0 at

Stade El Menzah Stade El Menzah is a multi-purpose stadium, located in the north of Tunis, Tunisia. History Stade Vélodrome is the historical stadium that preceded Stade El Menzah. It was built in 1927 in the same location and became the stadium of US Tunis an ...

, as they bowed out of the competition 4–1 on aggregate. However, the 1998–99 season proved to be just as fruitful domestically. Al Mahallah won the league title again, and thus secured qualification to the 2000 CAF Cup, where they met the Egyptian club and eventual runners-up

Ismaily Ismaily Sporting Club ( ar, نادي الإسماعيلي الرياضي) is an Egyptian professional football club, established on 20 March 1921 as El Nahda Sporting Club ( ar, جمعية نهضة الشباب المصري ) ( Egyptian pronunci ...

. Ismaily ran out 5–1 victors at the

Ismailia Stadium The Ismailia Stadium () is located in Ismailia, Egypt, and has a total capacity of 18,525 after the remodelation in 2009, then it was upgraded to 30,000 seats after the remodelation in 2019 for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, It is used by Ismaily ...

, but Al Mahallah salvaged pride in the second leg, as they won 3–2. This was Ismaily's only defeat in the competition. Almahalla participated in the CAF Cup again in the 2001 edition of the competition, where they met the Senegalese outfit

ASEC Ndiambour Association Sportive Artistique et Culturelle Ndiambour (abbreviated ASEC Ndiambour, Wolof: ''Njaambur'' or ''Njambuur'') is a Senegalese football club based in Louga, which is part of the Senegal National League 2 Poule A (second tier). Their ho ...

. Mahallah won the first leg 2–1, but later lost 2–0 in Louga, going out 3–2 on aggregate.

Relegation and Stagnation

The club was relegated from the

in the 2001–02 season, and has failed to come anywhere near that level since. The club was even relegated to the

Libyan Third Division The Libyan Third Division is the third tier of Libyan football, organised by the Libyan Football Federation. System The clubs are sorted into regional groups. The top team in each region is promoted to the Libyan Second Division. Some of the bigg ...

, and has only recently returned to the second tier. In the 2006–07 season, their first back in the Second Division, the club finished 9th in Group A, avoiding relegation by 6 points; last season, they made a great improvement, and finished 5th in Group B. They have made a great start to this season's competition, winning five of their first 6 matches. As of the end of Round 7, they sit top of Group A, with 19 points from 7 games.

Honours

: 2 **Champion : 1998, 1999 *

Libyan SuperCup The Libyan Super Cup is a Libyan football championship contested between the winners of the Libyan Premier League and the Alfatih Cup. The game is played at the beginning of the following season, and signals the beginning of the domestic year. The ...

: 1 **Winner :

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Performance in CAF competitions

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...

: ::

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

– First Round *

CAF Cup The CAF Cup was an annual competition organised by the CAF for domestic leagues runners-up of member associations who have not qualified to the pre-existing CAF international club competition the African Cup of Champions Clubs. History The tou ...

: 2 appearances ::2000 – First Round ::2001 – First Round

References

{{Libyan Second Division Mahalah 1977 establishments in Libya