World Cup changed since last time Egypt joined

Cairo – 9 October 2017:
28 years is the gap between Egypt's last participation in the World Cup in 1990 in Italy and their return to Russia in 2018.

Many things have changed in the tournament system since 1990 till now, from numbers of teams, to shares of continents’ teams, and even the system of counting points.

We will show what differs in the World Cup system in these 28 years.

Number of teams

The number of teams participating in the 1990 World Cup in Italy was less than this time. In Italy, 24 teams participated in the tournament, compared to 32 teams participating in Russia,

The first World Cup tournament to be played with 32 teams was in the 1998 World Cup in France.

Competition system

In 1990, the 24 teams were divided into six groups with four teams in each group. The leaders and the second of each group qualified directly, and the best four teams in the third ranking in all groups qualified to the Round of 16. Now, 32 teams are divided into eight groups with four teams in each group, and the top two teams of each group qualify to the Round of 16.

In Italy, a victory granted the winner only two points and draw gave it one point, but now the victory gives the winner three points, while a draw still gives one point.