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The first Arab participation in the World Cup dates back to 1934, which was attended by Egypt, while Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia lead the list of Arab countries in terms of the number of participations in the World Cup finals six times. Only three Arab teams, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, were able to pass the group stage in this competition. The Tunisian national team was the first to win between Arabs and Africans over Mexico 3-1 in 1978, while Algeria and Saudi Arabia are the most victorious.
Arabic participation in Qatar World Cup 2022 In football, the largest in history, on par with 2018, with the qualification of the teams of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia, in addition to the host Qatar.
The largest number of Arab teams was in the Russia 2018 edition, but Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia failed to pass the group stage.
The participation of 2022, which starts on November 20 in Qatar, would have been the largest had it not been for the dramatic exit of Algeria at home to Cameroon in the fourth minute of stoppage time, and Egypt wasting its first-leg lead against Senegal and losing to it again by penalties in a repeat scene of the Cup final. Nations of Africa. The UAE national team’s career also stopped in the Asian play-off against Australia.
Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco have the highest Arab balance in participation (6).
It is noteworthy that the number of participants was 13 teams in the 1930 edition, reaching 32 starting from 1998, and will rise to 48 in the 2026 edition, which means that Arab participation was limited in the past due to the specific seats for each continent and the failure of a large number of them to gain their independence.
Arab participation in the World Cup was often divided between one team (Egypt in 1934, Morocco 1970, Tunisia 1978, Algeria in 2010 and 2014), while two teams participated in the 1982 World Cup (Kuwait and Algeria), 1990 (Egypt and the UAE), and 1994 (Egypt and the UAE). Morocco and Saudi Arabia), 2002 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia) and 2006 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia), and three each in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico (Morocco, Algeria, and Iraq), and the 1998 World Cup in France (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia).
Among all the Arab participants in the World Cup, only Morocco (1986), Saudi Arabia (1994) and Algeria (2014) skipped the group stage, losing the first with difficulty against West Germany 0-1, the second against Sweden 1-3 and the third after extension against Germany 1-2 who won the title later.
The Tunisian national team was the first to win among Arabs and Africans over Mexico 3-1 in 1978, while Algeria and Saudi Arabia are considered the most victories (3).
Saudi Arabia and Morocco are the most involved in matches (16), followed by Tunisia (15) and Algeria (13), while Morocco was the most scored (14) compared to 13 for Algeria and Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia received the most goals (39), Tunisia (25) and Morocco (22). Algeria holds the best scoring rate (13 goals in 13 matches).
Algeria achieves a historic victory
Algeria became the first Arab and African team to score four goals in one match, after its victory over South Korea 4-2 in Porto Alegre in the 2014 World Cup, and it was also the most scored in one edition (7 in 2014). Morocco has the biggest difference by beating Scotland (3-0) in 1998, and Saudi Arabia is the victim of the worst loss against Germany (0-8) in 2002.
Algeria’s victory over West Germany 2-1 in the 1982 World Cup is still engraved in the minds, with the goals of Rabeh Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi, when West Germany included the best stars in the world, led by captain Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and reached the final match at that time after a “conspiracy” with Austria to exclude the desert warriors .
Saudi Arabia excels in the Arab world
The World Cup witnessed three Arab confrontations in history, in which Saudi Arabia was always a party, and all of them were in the group stage. It won the first over Morocco 2-1 in the 1994 World Cup, with goals from Sami Al-Jaber (7 from a penalty kick) and Fouad Anwar (45), against a goal by Mohamed Al-Shawish (26).
And in the second in Germany 2006, Saudi Arabia tied with Tunisia 2-2 with goals from Yasser Al-Qahtani (57) and Sami Al-Jaber (84), against goals from Ziyad Al-Jaziri (23) and Radi Al-Jaidi (90 + 2).
And in the last Russia 2018 edition, Saudi Arabia defeated Egypt 2-1 with goals from Salman Al-Faraj (45 + 6 from a penalty kick) and Salem Al-Dossary (90 + 5), against the goal of Mohamed Salah (22).
In terms of scorers, only Saudi Sami Al-Jaber scored three goals, against Morocco (1994), South Africa (1998) and Tunisia (2006), while ten players scored two goals. Al-Jaber is also the only Arab to play matches in four editions of the World Cup (between 1994 and 2006).
The following are the Arab participations in the World Cup:
1934: Egypt
1970: Morocco
1978: Tunisia
1982: Kuwait and Algeria
1986: Iraq, Morocco and Algeria
1990: UAE and Egypt
1994: Saudi Arabia and Morocco
1998: Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia
2002: Saudi Arabia and Tunisia
2006: Saudi Arabia and Tunisia
2010: Algeria
2014: Algeria
2018: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco
2022: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia
Most participating teams
6 entries: Saudi Arabia (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022), Morocco (1970, 1986, 1994, 1998, 2018 and 2022) and Tunisia (1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018 and 2022)
4 entries: Algeria (1982, 1986, 2010, 2014)
3 entries: Egypt (1934, 1990, 2018)
One participation: Kuwait (1982), Iraq (1986), the Emirates (1990) and Qatar (2022).
France 24/AFP