Goal Programme - Egyptian Football Association - 2002

Football is the clear number one sport in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association can look back on a successful history. The national team has won the African Cup of Nations four times (1957, 1959, 1986, and 1998), the African Games football tournament twice (1987 and 1995), and the African Youth Championship once (in 2003). The U-20 team also took third place at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina in 2001. Egypt have played in the Olympic Football Tournament on three occasions (1960, 1964, and 1984) and participated in the FIFA World Cup? finals twice (1934 and 1990). In 1997, Egypt hosted the FIFA U-17 World Championship and the nation is also among those bidding to stage the 2010 FIFA World Cup?. Egypt's best-known coach is Mahmoud El Gohary, who took the national team to the FIFA World Cup? finals in 1990 and is the only person to have won the African Cup of Nations both as a player (in 1959) and as a coach (1998).

At its meeting on 1 May 2003, the Goal Bureau added Egypt to the list of Goal beneficiaries. The project - a technical centre - was presented to the Goal Bureau in October 2003. Development programmes for young players (in the 9-13 age bracket) were then already in the planning stage and today the centre provides ideal facilities for their implementation. Moreover, the centre also allows national teams at all levels to properly prepare for international matches and the national association to organise numerous courses for coaches, referees, administrators and sports medics.