The Egyptian team officially clinched its qualification after defeating Djibouti 3-0 in Morocco, in the ninth and penultimate round of the African qualifiers.
Thus, the Pharaohs raised their score to 23 points, 5 points ahead of Burkina Faso, ensuring the lead and qualification before the end of the round.
The 2026 World Cup will be Egypt’s fourth appearance in its history, after the 1934, 1990, and 2018 editions.

The “Pharaohs” raised the number of Arab teams that have qualified so far to 4 teams: Jordan (Asia), Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt (Africa).

It is certain that the number will rise to at least 5 Arab teams, given that an Arab trio (Qatar – Oman – UAE) is in one group in the Asian playoff, which guarantees the qualification of one of them.
Thus, he will break the previous record (4 Arab teams in the World Cup), which was achieved in the 2018 editions in Russia (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia) and the 2022 editions in Qatar (Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar).

The way is also open for a new record with 7 or even 8 Arab teams qualifying for the 2026 edition, as Algeria is close to clinching its African ticket, while Saudi Arabia and Iraq are competing in the second group of the Asian playoff for a direct ticket, and the global playoff may open the door to an additional Arab representative.

The Algerian national team has 3 chances to secure qualification in the ninth round, either by winning over Somalia, or by drawing, provided that neither Uganda nor Mozambique wins, or by Uganda and Mozambique losing together.

The Desert Warriors lead their group with 19 points, ahead of Uganda and Mozambique (15 points each).

It is noteworthy that the Egyptian national team has become the 19th team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals out of 48 teams, along with each of the qualifying teams (Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay), while 29 other tickets remain undecided.

Source: RT