For the first time in history… 7 Arab teams in the World Cup finals

Yesterday, Tuesday, the teams of Saudi Arabia and Qatar qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, in the third round of the Asian playoff matches, bringing the number of Arab teams qualified for the 2026 World Cup to 7 in a historic precedent, as this is the first time that 7 Arab teams have qualified for this global football tournament.

There is still a chance for an eighth Arab team to join the World Cup, as the UAE and Iraqi teams will meet on November 13 and 18 to determine the team that will represent Asia in the global playoff, for a final chance to reach the 2026 World Cup finals, which will be hosted by 3 American countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The qualification of 7 Arab teams for the World Cup brings the number of teams participating in the finals to 48, for the first time in the history of the international football competition.

The Jordanian team was the first Arab team to qualify for the next World Cup finals, before other Arab and African teams followed.

The Moroccan team was the first Arab team from Africa to secure qualification before the teams of Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria joined them.

Arab teams and qualification times:

This is the seventh time that Saudi Arabia has qualified for the World Cup finals, while it is the second time for Qatar (after the first when it hosted the tournament on its soil), and the first for Jordan.

Morocco and Tunisia have previously qualified for the tournament 6 times, meaning this is the seventh time that the two teams have qualified, while Algeria has qualified 5 times and Egypt 4 times.

The teams of Kuwait, Iraq and the UAE have previously qualified in previous tournaments, with hope remaining that either the UAE or Iraq will qualify for the global playoff.

Teams qualifying for the 2026 World Cup finals:

Host countries of the tournament: