Wednesday 15/October/2025 – 03:56 AM
Witness a championship World Cup 2026, scheduled to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, is an unprecedented historical event in the history of Arab football, after 7 Arab teams officially qualified for the World Cup, which is the largest number of Arab teams in a single edition in history.
A historic achievement: 7 Arab teams in the World Cup for the first time
The teams of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria (from the continent of Africa), and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan (from the continent of Asia) secured their seats in the next edition, while the struggle remains for the eighth Arab seat between Iraq and the Emirates, in light of the chances of one of them to qualify for the continental berth.
This large Arab presence is the culmination of a tangible development in the level of football in the region in recent years, as Arab teams have begun to perform strongly at the continental and global levels, with the development of infrastructure and increasing interest in national teams.
The largest previous Arab participation was recorded in the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 editions, with only 4 teams participating in each edition, making the 2026 edition the largest and most representative of Arabs in the history of the World Cup.
This record increase in the number of teams is due to the decision of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to increase the number of participating teams from 32 to 48 teams, which gave the continents of Asia and Africa additional seats, and opened the door for new Arab teams to appear in the largest global event.
It is expected that the 2026 edition will represent a golden opportunity for Arab football to prove itself, especially after the historic performance of the Moroccan national team in the 2022 World Cup, when it became the first Arab and African team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
