Egyptian Second Division set for major promotion system change

The Egyptian Football Association has announced a new format for the Second Division, with three teams to earn promotion to the Professional League, the country’s first division.

The competition will be divided into four groups, with a different promotion route introduced for Group One, covering Upper Egypt.

The Alexandria? No, avoid. On Monday, 10 August 2026, the Egyptian Football Association revealed how the tournament will be organised and how teams can reach the Professional League. FilGoal.com outlined the structure and the revised promotion process.

Upper Egypt

Group One, known as the Upper Egypt section, will be split into two smaller groups.

Group One (A) will contain the teams from northern Upper Egypt, while Group One (B) will be made up of teams from southern Upper Egypt.

The team finishing first in each of those two groups will qualify for a decisive play-off. The two group winners will meet over two legs, with one match played at each team’s ground.

The winner of that tie will secure direct promotion to the Professional League.

The remaining groups

Group Two will cover Cairo and Giza and will be played as a single group.

Group Three will cover the Canal and Delta areas and will also consist of one group.

Group Four will be the Bahri section, which will likewise be contested as a single group.

The top two teams from each of these three groups will advance to a promotion round. That will produce six teams in total.

Those six sides will then play each other once in a single round-robin league. The teams finishing first and second in that promotion round will be promoted directly to the Professional League.

As a result, three teams will gain promotion from the Second Division: one through the Upper Egypt play-off and two from the six-team promotion round.

The new structure means that the Upper Egypt section will have its own two-stage route to promotion, while the Cairo and Giza, Canal and Delta, and Bahri groups will use the same system of sending their leading two teams into the final promotion competition.

The Egyptian Football Association’s announcement therefore sets out a revised path from the Second Division to the Professional League, with the overall number of promoted teams confirmed as three.