Egypt have qualified for the FIFA World Cup on three occasions, in 1934, 1990 and 2018.[1] [2] [3] [4] With 2 draws and 5 losses, Egypt has never won a match in the World Cup finals. In 1934 Egypt became the first Arab and African team to play in the World Cup.[5]
When they qualified again in 1990, they became the team with the longest-ever gap between two FIFA World Cup matches: 56 years and 16 days had passed. This was surpassed in 2022 by the qualification of Wales for the first time in 64 years.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the finals.
The current format of the finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.[6]
| FIFA World Cup record | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | |||||||
 1930 | Withdrew due to storm | ||||||||
 1934 | Round of 16 | 13th | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
 1938 | Withdrew | ||||||||
 1950 | Did not enter | ||||||||
 1954 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
 1958 | Withdrew | ||||||||
 1962 | |||||||||
| 1966 | |||||||||
 1970 | Did not enter | ||||||||
| 1974 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
 1978 | |||||||||
 1982 | |||||||||
| 1986 | |||||||||
| 1990 | Group stage | 20th | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 1994 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| 1998 | |||||||||
 2002 | |||||||||
 2006 | |||||||||
 2010 | |||||||||
| 2014 | |||||||||
| 2018 | Group stage | 31st | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |
 2022 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
 2026 | To be determined | ||||||||
  2030 | |||||||||
 2034 | |||||||||
| Total | Round of 16 | 3/22 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 | |
| No. | Date | Type | Opponent | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 May 1934 | First round |  Hungary | 2-4 | |
| 2 | 12 June 1990 | Group stage |  Netherlands | 1–1 | |
| 3 | 17 June 1990 | Group stage | 0-0 | ||
| 4 | 21 June 1990 | Group stage | 0–1 | ||
| 5 | 15 June 2018 | Group stage | 0–1 | ||
| 6 | 19 June 2018 | Group stage | 1-3 | ||
| 7 | 25 June 2018 | Group stage | 1–2 |
Egypt wasn't able to attend the world cup because its selection lost the connection to the ship that was traveling to South America due to a storm that delayed their boat to Marseille.[7]
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Group F
See main article: 1990 FIFA World Cup Group F. Group F, featured the Netherlands, England, the Republic of Ireland and Egypt. In the six group games, no team managed to score more than once in a match. England beat Egypt 1–0, thanks to a 58th-minute goal from Mark Wright – and that was enough to win the group.
| Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 4 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 |
The Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands finished with identical records. With both teams assured of progressing, they were split by the drawing of lots to determine second and third place.---
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| Assistant referees: Edgardo Codesal (Mexico) Juan Daniel Cardellino (Uruguay) |
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| Assistant referees: Joël Quiniou (France) Rosario Lo Bello (Italy) |
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| Assistant referees: Berny Ulloa Morera (Costa Rica) Edgardo Codesal (Mexico) |
Group A
See main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup Group A.
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| Man of the Match: Mohamed El Shenawy (Egypt)[8]
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| Man of the Match: Denis Cheryshev (Russia)[9]
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| Man of the Match: Mohamed Salah (Egypt)[10]
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Due to the long time spans between Egypt's World Cup participations, no player was able to play more than one tournament. 22 players share the record for most World Cup appearances for Egypt: Ten players from the 1990 FIFA World Cup, among them twin brothers Hossam and Ibrahim Hassan, and twelve players from 2018. The team of 1934 was only able to play one match because of a different tournament format.
An Egyptian player with a notable record is goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary. On 25 June 2018, he became the oldest player ever to appear in a World Cup match with 45 years and 5 months. He saved a penalty in the first half of the match against Saudi Arabia, but ultimately Egypt lost 1–2.
| Rank | Player | Matches | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magdi Abdelghani | 3 | 1990 |
| Gamal Abdelhamid | 3 | 1990 | |
| Ahmed El-Kass | 3 | 1990 | |
| Hossam Hassan | 3 | 1990 | |
| Ibrahim Hassan | 3 | 1990 | |
| Hany Ramzy | 3 | 1990 | |
| Ahmed Shobair | 3 | 1990 | |
| Hesham Yakan | 3 | 1990 | |
| Rabie Yassin | 3 | 1990 | |
| Ismail Youssef | 3 | 1990 | |
| Mohamed Abdel Shafy | 3 | 2018 | |
| Mohamed Elneny | 3 | 2018 | |
| Ahmed Fathy | 3 | 2018 | |
| Ali Gabr | 3 | 2018 | |
| Tarek Hamed | 3 | 2018 | |
| Ahmed Hegazi | 3 | 2018 | |
| Kahraba | 3 | 2018 | |
| Marwan Mohsen | 3 | 2018 | |
| Abdallah Said | 3 | 2018 | |
| Ramadan Sobhi | 3 | 2018 | |
| Trézéguet | 3 | 2018 | |
| Amr Warda | 3 | 2018 | |
Scoring twice at Egypt's first-ever World Cup match, their 2–4 defeat against Hungary, made Abdulrahman Fawzi the only African goalscorer at a FIFA World Cup finals for decades. It took 84 years for another Egyptian, Mohamed Salah, to equal his tally.
| Rank | Player | Goals | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abdulrahman Fawzi | 2 | 1934 |
| Mohamed Salah | 2 | 2018 | |
| 3 | Magdi Abdelghani | 1 | 1990 |
| FIFA World Cup qualifications record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Status | Participation | ||||||
| Uruguay 1930 | Did Not Enter "didn't accept FIFA's invitation" | |||||||
| Italy 1934 | Qualified to the Round of 16 | 1st | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| 1938 | Withdrew "refused to play against Romania due to financial matters" | |||||||
| Brazil 1950 | Did Not Enter | |||||||
| Switzerland 1954 | Did not qualify | 3rd | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Sweden 1958 | Withdrew "declined to meet Sudan in refusal to Israel Participation" | |||||||
| Chile 1962 | Withdrew As United Arab Republic after as FIFA would not allow them to rearrange matches to avoid the monsoon season | |||||||
| England 1966 | Withdrew "all African nations declined to Participate asking for African seat" | |||||||
| Mexico 1970 | Did Not Enter "due to Postponement of Sports activities in EGYPT after 1967 war" | |||||||
| West Germany 1974 | Did not qualify | 7th | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Argentina 1978 | Did not qualify | 8th | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 12 |
| Spain 1982 | Did not qualify | 9th | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mexico 1986 | Did not qualify | 10th | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 1990 | Qualified for the FINALS | 11th | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| United States 1994 | Did not qualify | 12th | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| France 1998 | Did not qualify | 13th | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 |
| South Korea/Japan 2002 | Did not qualify | 14th | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 22 | 9 |
| Germany 2006 | Did not qualify | 15th | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 26 | 15 |
| South Africa 2010 | Did not qualify | 16th | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 7 |
| Brazil 2014 | Did not qualify | 17th | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 14 |
| Russia 2018 | Qualified for the FINALS | 18th | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 5 |
| Qatar 2022 | Did not qualify | |||||||
| Total | final 3/20 | 17/20 | 87 | 48 | 18 | 21 | 156 | 84 |
See main article: 1930 FIFA World Cup.
The Egyptian Football association declined the invitation handed to it by FIFA because of the cost of the far trip to Uruguay to participate in the FIFA World Cup URUGUAY 1930
See main article: 1934 FIFA World Cup qualification. Group 12
The Palestine football team consisted of nine British footballers, six Jewish footballers and one Arab footballer.[11] FIFA states in reference to the 1930s Palestine Mandate team that the 'Palestine team' that had participated in previous competitions in the 1930s was actually the forerunner of today's Israel team and as such bears no relation to the national team of the Palestinian authority although there were no state named Israel yet .[12] However, the region currently known as Palestine is considered "one of the first Asian teams to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers".[13]
| width=20 | Rank | width=200 style="text-align:left;" | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 5.50 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 0.18 | 0 | |||||||||||
| - | withdrew | ||||||||||||||||||
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11–2 on aggregate; Egypt qualified.
See main article: 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification. Group 4
Egypt were to play Romania in December 1937 however Egypt refused to play Romania due a Financial Problems
Another Story says Egypt refused to play Romania during the Ramadan month, Egyptian officials had argued it was "impossible" to play football during that time period. Egyptian officials went on to invite Austrian club side First Vienna FC to Egypt to participate in a friendly game against the national team during the holy month. As a result, Egypt were withdrawn from the competition by FIFA, so Romania qualified automatically.[14]
See main article: 1950 FIFA World Cup qualification. Egypt did not participate in this version of the FIFA World Cup for no clear reasons
See main article: 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification.
Group 9
| width=30 | Rank | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | ||||||||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | -5 |
----EGYPT didn't qualify
See main article: 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification. Africa and Asia
CAF / AFC first round
Group 3
| width=30 | Rank | Team | width=20 | Pts | width=20 | Pld | width=20 | W | width=20 | D | width=20 | L | width=20 | GF | width=20 | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | advanced | |||||||||||||||
| - | withdrew | |||||||||||||||
Cyprus withdrew, so Egypt advanced to the Second Round automatically.
CAF / AFC second round
| width=30 | Rank | Team | width=20 | Pts | width=20 | Pld | width=20 | W | width=20 | D | width=20 | L | width=20 | GF | width=20 | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1= | advanced | |||||||||||||||
| 1= | advanced | |||||||||||||||
| - | withdrew | |||||||||||||||
| - | withdrew | |||||||||||||||
Indonesia withdrew after FIFA rejected their request to play against Israel on neutral ground.Israel advanced to the final round automatically. Egypt withdrew, so Sudan advanced to the final round automatically.
See main article: 1962 FIFA World Cup qualification.
CAF first round
Group 1
| width=30 | Rank | width=165 style="text-align:left" | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | withdrew | ||||||||||||||||||
| - | withdrew | ||||||||||||||||||
United Arab Republic and Sudan both withdrew as FIFA refused to allow them to rearrange their games to avoid the monsoon season.http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/mencompwc/51/97/68/2014fwc_kit_recap_fwc_prel_neutral.pdf#page=68
See main article: 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1966 FIFA World Cup qualification (Africa, Asia and Oceania).
Africa First Round
No matches were played because of protests to the allocation of spots. The original group draws were.
| Group 1 |
| Group 2 |
| Group 3 |
| Group 4 |
| Group 5 |
| Group 6 |
The second round pairing were scheduled as following.
The winners were to advance to the final round.
See main article: 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification. Egypt did not participate in this version of the FIFA World Cup due to the postponement of all sports activities after 1967 war
See main article: 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF). Egypt out of first Round.
See main article: 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF). Egypt advanced to the Second Round.----Egypt advanced to the Third Round.----Egypt advanced to the final round.----
| width=30 | Rank | width=165 style="text-align:left;" | Team | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | |||||||||||
| 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 11 | -4 | |||||||||||
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | +1 |
----------------Egypt out of Final Round.
See main article: 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF). Egypt advanced to the Second Round, Ghana withdrew.----Egypt advanced to the Third Round, Libya withdrew.----
----Egypt out of Third Round.
See main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF). First RoundEgypt advanced to the Second Round.----Second RoundEgypt advanced to the Third Round on penalties.----Third Round
Egypt out of Third Round.
See main article: 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification. Second roundGroup B
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See main article: 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification and 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF).
