Egypt, undoubtedly one of the strongest African and Arab futsal teams, often find themselves among the title favourites. They are the most successful side in CAF Futsal AFCON history, having conquered three times, and have also qualified for the FIFA Futsal World Cup™ on an African-record seven occasions and lifted two Arab Cups.

At this year’s AFCON, which will take place in Morocco from 11 April, the Pharaohs will be looking to win the continental crown for the first time in 20 years and secure a spot at Uzbekistan 2024.

Gehad Arafa, who had a distinguished playing career at club and international level before retiring in 2010, is the man charged with guiding them there. He vacated the hot-seat in 2022, only to return last year.

Do you think you will be able to maintain Egypt’s run of Futsal World Cup appearances by qualifying for Uzbekistan 2024?
Gehad Arafa: Egypt has been at every World Cup since 1996, even when just one African team could qualify for the tournament. In the early days, we were mainly competing with Morocco and Libya. Now three African teams have the chance to qualify. We want to continue our run by qualifying for this year’s World Cup, but we know how hard it will be because of how strong the African teams are now. A lot of teams have improved in recent years, so there’s strong competition for the available places.

Egypt have done well at previous World Cups, most notably reaching the quarter-finals in 2016. Is that something you think you can repeat or even improve upon, or are you solely focused on the AFCON?
We have previously done well at the World Cup. As well as reaching the quarter-finals in 2016, we had a great result in Guatemala in 2000, when we finished sixth and came close to making the semi-finals. That time, we missed out to the European champions Russia, who we’d actually beaten at the tournament but unfortunately qualified ahead of us on goal difference. I’m definitely hoping to compete for the upcoming AFCON title, but our main goal is to qualify for the World Cup, and we’re very clear about that.

What do you make of Egypt’s group at the AFCON?
We’re definitely in a tough group, but I think the two groups are well balanced, with Egypt and Morocco the favourites to top each of them. After that, I think there are two other sides who are strong contenders to qualify from the group stage: Angola, who were at the last World Cup, and Libya, who looked very strong in qualifying against Algeria. We’ll also be facing Mauritania, who were a very well-organised side when we played them in the Arab Futsal Cup, and Zambia, who beat a strong Mozambique side to qualify for the tournament. Although it’s very well balanced, I think our main competition in the group stage will probably come from Libya.

Given Egypt haven’t won the AFCON in 20 years, do you feel more pressure to triumph?
I think there are clear reasons why we haven’t won the title for 20 years. We won the AFCON three times in a row from 1996. I played at the 2000 tournament and captained the side in 2004. I would say the biggest reason we haven’t lifted the trophy since then is the shift in both African futsal and football. Now, teams like Cabo Verde, Congo DR and Guinea have grown much stronger and are capable of upsetting the major hitters in African football. The AFCON has become much tougher, with so many teams competing fiercely for the title. Morocco have been preparing very well and have their sights set on the next World Cup title, and I believe that’s something they can achieve, given how well they performed in Lithuania. Hopefully we’ll make it to the AFCON final and have the chance to regain the title after 20 years.

You took over as Egypt coach after a period of poor results. How have you gone about choosing players for the squad?
There’s been a solid core to the team for over seven years now, with plenty of young players joining up. About 75 per cent of the squad play professionally in the Saudi league, while the rest come from the Egyptian Futsal League. I’m confident in the strength of our squad and our ability to achieve much better results at this year’s AFCON, which should see us qualify for the World Cup. We want to do better and restore Egypt’s reputation on the world stage.