Culture of Egypt - Sports

Sports

Football is the most popular sport in Egypt. Egyptian football clubs especially El Ahly and El Zamalek are known throughout the Middle East and Africa and enjoy the reputation of long-time champions of the sport regionally. They enjoy popularity even among non-Egyptians.

The Egyptian national football team won the African Cup of Nations seven times setting a new record in Africa (years: 57, 59, 86, 98, 06, 08, 10). Although it's the first African country who joined FIFA, but it hasn't made it to the FIFA World Cup except only two times in 1934 and 1990. In the World Military Cup, Egypt won the title 5 times, and was the runner-up another 2 times.

Other popular sports in Egypt are basketball, handball, squash, and tennis. The Egyptian national squash team is always known for its fierce competition in worldwide championships since the 1930s till today. Handball has become another growingly popular sport among Egyptians as well. Since the early 1990s, the Egyptian national handball team has become a growing international force in the sport, winning regional and continental tournaments as well as reaching up to fourth place internationally in 2001. The Junior national handball team reached the first rank in 1993 under the lead of Captain Gamal Shams, and it hosted the tournament in 2010 setting a record in the audience number specially the match between Egypt and Denmark in the semifinals, the stadium was completely full.

In older times (1930s and 40s), Egypt was a power house in weightlifting, boxing, and wrestling with several Olympic and world championship medals.

Also roller hockey (quad) is available in Egypt, but the teams that are playing this game may not exceed 10 teams and the most famous club which plays roller hockey is "Al-Zamalek sporting club", and also "Nasr-City sporting club". The Egyptian national roller hockey team has took part in many world competitions, but unlikely the team didn't win any tournament.

Local sports clubs receive financial support from the local governments, and many sporting clubs are financially and administratively supported by the government.