Member Association Focus: Egypt
Our weekly member association focus falls on Egypt, a founder member of the Confédération Africaine de Football in 1957.
NATIONAL TEAM
The Pharaohs will be heading to a record-extending 27th TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco at the end of the year after going through their qualifying campaign unbeaten. Egypt topped their group ahead of second placed Botswana, with four wins and two draws to easily secure their place and have been drawn in Group B in Agadir where they will face Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe. But before that focus is firmly on FIFA World Cup qualification, which Egypt previously achieved in 1934, 1990 and 2018. Egypt are four points clear at the top of Group A and have qualifiers next month away against Ethiopia and home to Sierra Leone. Egypt on Tuesday qualified for the second round of the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco 2026 by edging Rwanda 3-2 on aggregate. They won last week’s first leg 1-0 and drew 2-2 in Ismailia in the return match and now take on Ghana in October in their next qualifier.
CLUBS
Al Ahly and Zamalek are both on course to defend the club titles they won last year with a full house of Egyptian participants in the last eight of the two continental CAF Interclub competitions. Al Ahly, who are looking to stretch their record number of TotalEnergies CAF Champions League triumphs to 13 and reach the final for a sixth successive season, take on Al Hilal in April’s quarter-final ties while Pyramids are up against AS FAR from Morocco in the same competition. In the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup, Zamalek have been drawn against South Africa’s Stellenbosch in the last eight while Al Masry will take on Tanzania’s Simba. If Al Masry and Zamalek both progress, they will clash in an all-Egyptian semi-final.
LEADERSHIP
Hany Abou Rida was elected in November as president of the Egyptian Football Association, having previously served from 2016-19. He is also a FIFA Council member and has been on the EFA Board since 1991.
HISTORY
Egypt has set the standards for African football with a record number of successes at both club and country level. Al Ahly dominance of the Champions League has made them the most successful club on the continent while the Egypt national team has won more TotalEnergies CAF AFCON title than any other country, a total of seven titles. Their last success, however, came in 2010 at the conclusion of three back-to-back triumphs. Egypt has played more games at the finals (111) than any other team and hosted the tournament five times, first in 1959 and lastly in 2019. Egypt is also the home of the Confédération Africaine de Football. The organisation’s initial statutes determined that the headquarters be in the same city where the president resided and the first offices were at 3 El Hadiqa Street in Garden City, Cairo. They are now at 6th October City. The first two presidents of CAF were also Egyptian – Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem from 1957-58 and Abdelaziz Mostafa from 1958-1968.