The Arab participation in the World Cup Qatar 2022 in football is the largest in history, equal to 2018, with the qualification of the teams of Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia, in addition to the host Qatar, and the possibility of the UAE joining it.
While the participation of the 2022 World Cup equaled the record Arab quartet appearance in 2018, it could be strengthened if the UAE skips Australia with an Asian supplement on June 7, and then Peru in an international supplement a week later.
The largest number of Arab teams was in Russia 2018, but Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia failed to pass the group stage.
The participation of 2022, which draws its official lottery Friday in Doha, would have been the widest, had it not been for the dramatic exit of Algeria at home against Cameroon, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, on Tuesday, and Egypt wasting its progress in the first leg against Senegal and its loss against it again by penalty shootout in a scene repeated for the Cup final. African nations.
Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco have the highest Arab balance in posts (6).
It is noteworthy that the number of participants was 13 teams in the 1930 edition, reaching 32 starting in 1998, and it will rise to 48 in the 2026 edition, which means that the 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.
The Arab participation in the World Cup was often divided between one team (Egypt in 1934, Morocco in 1970, Tunisia in 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 ( Morocco and Saudi Arabia), 2002 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia), 2006 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia) and three in each of 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. The first lost with difficulty against West Germany 0-1, the second against Sweden 1-3 and the third after the extension against Germany 1-2 which later won the title.
The Tunisian team was the first winner among the Arabs over Mexico 3-1 in 1978, while Algeria and Saudi Arabia are the most victories (3) and Saudi Arabia the most losing (11) followed by Morocco and Tunisia (9).
Saudi Arabia and Morocco are the most contestants (16), followed by Tunisia (15) and Algeria (13), while Morocco was the most scoring (14) compared to (13) for each of Algeria and Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia received the most (39) in front of Tunisia (25) and Morocco (22). ). Algeria has the best scoring average (13 goals in 13 matches).
The largest successive qualification series for Saudi Arabia was between 1994 and 2006, while the longest absence period between two qualifications for Egypt was in 1934 and 1990.
Algeria became the first Arab and African team to score four goals in one match, after beating South Korea 4-2 in Porto Alegre in the 2014 World Cup, and was the most recorded in one copy (7) in 2014. Morocco has the biggest difference by defeating Scotland (3 – Zero) in 1998, and Saudi Arabia had the worst loss against Germany (zero-8) in 2002.
Algeria’s 2-1 victory over West Germany in the 1982 World Cup is still engraved in the minds, with goals from Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi, when West Germany had the best stars in the world led by captain Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Saudi supremacy in Arab confrontations
The World Cup witnessed three Arab confrontations in history, in which Saudi Arabia has always been a party, all in the group stage. In the first, they beat Morocco 2-1 in the 1994 World Cup with goals from Sami Al-Jaber (7 from a penalty kick) and Fouad Anwar (45) against Mohamed Chaouch (26).
In the second in the 2006 edition of Germany, Saudi Arabia tied with Tunisia 2-2 with the goals of Yasser Al-Qahtani (57) and Sami Al-Jaber (84), against the goals of Ziad Al-Jaziri (23) and Radi Al-Jaidi (90 + 2).
In the last Russia 2018 edition, Saudi Arabia beat Egypt 2-1 with goals from Salman Al-Faraj (45 + 6 from a penalty kick) and Salem Al-Dosari (90 + 5), against Mohamed Salah’s goal (22).
In terms of top 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 in four matches in the World Cup (between 1994 and 2006).
Most participating teams
6- 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- Algeria (1982, 1986, 2010, 2014).
3- Egypt (1934, 1990, 2018).
1- Kuwait (1982), Iraq (1986), UAE (1990) and Qatar (2022).