Egypt national handball team

Egyptian Handball Federation old logo

Egypt's first performance at the IHF World Championship was in 1964, where they failed to earn a single point. But since they were the first African team to participate at the tournament, and the fact that non-European teams were heavily underdeveloped back then, it was considered a major achievement.

After Egypt started developing their handball infrastructure, Egypt were able to qualify for the 1993 tournament at Sweden. They were able to win a game this time, against Czechoslovakia and were able to progress to the next round with one win and two losses. In the second round, however, despite close matches against all three opponents – Romania, France and Switzerland (going as far as 26–27 with Romania) – Egypt failed to progress to the next stage.

Egypt's performance at the 1995 Championship is what raised Egypt as a strong team. This time, Egypt was able to win against three out of five teams at the first round, beating Brazil, Kuwait and a close match against Belarus.

Egypt who were widely expected not to survive the knockout stage, beat former World Champions Romania in the round of 16. While they were later beaten at the quarterfinals against Croatia, the team was highly praised back home. Handball continued to grow at Egypt and a rivalry formed between Egypt and Tunisia.

At the 1996 Olympics Egypt had their best performance after losing the 5th place match.

Egypt advanced to the quarterfinals every time between 1995 and 2001. In 1999, when it was hosted in Egypt, they failed to pass to the semi-finals after a loss against Russia.

In the 2001 IHF World Championship, Egypt beat Morocco, Portugal and Iceland, drew with Czechia and lost to Sweden. At the knockout stage, Egypt beat fellow Africans, Algeria. At the quarterfinal, where Egypt has been knocked out three times prior, Egypt was against Russia again. Egypt were able to have their revenge after winning the close game 21–19. Egypt then became the first non-European team to reach the World Championship semi-finals. However, after losses against France and Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Egypt placed fourth. This was the best performance by a non-European team until it was equaled by Tunisia in 2005. It was not until Qatar at 2015, got the silver medal, that Egypt's record was broken. However, Qatar's team was not without controversies.

Between 2003 and 2017, Egypt qualified every time but failed to impress, failing to advance to the quarterfinals every time. Egypt recently broke this streak at the 2019 IHF World Championship, where they placed eight. A year later, Egypt would beat their North African Rivals Tunisia in their own turf, qualifying to the 2020 Olympics.

And with Egypt hosting the first 32-team Handball Championship in 2021, there are hopes for a second Egyptian Golden Generation.

Egyptian Handball Federation current logo

     Champions       Runners-up       Third place       Fourth place Olympic Games

Games	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936 Berlin	Did not enter
Not held from 1948 to 1968
1972 Munich	Did not enter
1976 Montreal	Did not participate
1980 Moscow	Did not qualify
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona	Match for 11th place	11th of 12	6	1	0	5	119	137	−18
1996 Atlanta	Match for 5th place	6th of 12	6	3	0	3	139	132	+7
2000 Sydney	Match for 7th place	7th of 12	8	4	0	4	197	194	+3
2004 Athens	Match for 11th place	12th of 12	6	0	0	6	134	163	−29
2008 Beijing	Group stage	10th of 12	5	0	2	3	127	132	−5
2012 London	Did not qualify
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Group stage	9th of 12	5	1	1	3	129	143	−14
2020 Tokyo	Qualified
Total	7/14	0 Titles	36	9	3	24	845	901	−56

World Championship

Year	Position	Pld	W	D	L
Germany 1938	Did not enter
Sweden 1954
Germany 1958
Germany 1961
Czechoslovakia 1964	14th	3	0	0	3
Sweden 1967	Did not enter
France 1970
East Germany 1974
Denmark 1978
Germany 1982
East Germany 1986
Czechoslovakia 1990
Sweden 1993	12th	7	1	0	6
Iceland 1995	6th	9	5	0	4
Japan 1997	6th	9	6	1	2
Egypt 1999	7th	9	6	0	3
France 2001	4th	9	5	1	3
Portugal 2003	15th	7	2	1	4
Tunisia 2005	14th	5	3	0	2
Germany 2007	17th	6	2	0	4
Croatia 2009	14th	9	4	0	5
Sweden 2011	14th	7	2	0	5
Spain 2013	16th	6	1	1	4
Qatar 2015	14th	6	2	1	3
France 2017	13th	6	3	0	3
/ Denmark/Germany 2019	8th	9	3	1	5
Egypt 2021	Qualified as host
/ Poland/Sweden 2023	To be determined
// Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025
Germany 2027
Total	16/30	107	45	6	56

• Official website
• IHF profile