The 2018–19 Egypt Cup was the 87th edition of the oldest recognised football tournament in Africa. It is sponsored by WE, and known as the WE Cup for sponsorship purposes. It started with the First Preliminary Round on 12 August 2018, and concluded with the final on 8 September 2019.
For the first round, the participating teams were split into three pots, the first one contained the three promoted teams from the Egyptian Second Division and the fifteenth placed team in the Egyptian Premier League, the second one contained the other 14 teams of the Egyptian Premier League and the last one contained the 14 teams qualified from the Fifth Preliminary Round.
The draw rules are as follow:
The defending champions (Zamalek) and the Egyptian Premier League champions (Al Ahly) are placed in different paths, and can face each other only in the final.
The Egyptian Premier League runners-up and third placed team (Ismaily and Al Masry) are placed in different paths, and can face each other only in the final.
Teams meet in one game per round. Matches take place for 90 minutes, with two-halves of 45 minutes. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time will be played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes. If the score is still level after this, the match will be decided by a penalty shoot-out. A coin toss will decide who takes the first penalty. A total of seven players are allowed to be listed on the substitute bench, with up to three substitutions being allowed during regulation.
Champion qualification
Usually, the winner of the Egypt Cup earns automatic qualification for the 2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup. If they have already qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup or CAF Champions League through their position in the Egyptian Premier League, then the spot will go to the cup runners-up. If the cup runners-up also qualified for an African competition through their league position, then the spot will be given to the fourth placed team in the league.
However, since the competition will conclude in September 2019 and the 2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup began in August 2019, the winner of this season's edition of the competition won't earn qualification for the CAF Confederation Cup, and the spot awarded to the cup winner was given to the fourth placed team in the 2018–19 Egyptian Premier League.
All of the competing teams that are not members of the Egyptian Premier League had to compete in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 14 available places in the Round of 32. The qualifying competition began with the First Preliminary Round on 12 August 2018. The final (fifth) qualifying round was played on 3 October 2018.
The matches were played from 23 October 2018 to 17 August 2019. This round included two teams from the Egyptian Second Division, Al Jazeera and El Mansoura, the lowest ranking sides left in the competition.
The following is the bracket which the Egypt Cup resembled. Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of a penalty shoot-out.
The following are the top scorers of the Egypt Cup, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.
^ abc"الاتحاد المصري يعلن مواعيد مؤجلات الدوري والكأس" [Egyptian Football Association announces dates for Egyptian Premier League and Egypt Cup postponed matches]. Goal (in Arabic). 15 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
^Since both finalists qualified to an African competition based on their league rankings, the spot awarded to the winners (2019–20 CAF Confederation Cup preliminary or first round) was passed to the fourth-placed team in the league, Al Masry.[1]
^Al Masry v Al Jazeera match, originally scheduled to be played on 9 October 2018 at Al Masry Club Stadium in Port Said, was postponed due to security reasons. The Egyptian Football Association later announced that the match will be played on 16 October 2018.[10] However the EFA postponed the match again on 15 October 2018, and said that they believe that Al Masry's home stadium is still "unsafe" and not ready yet to host local matches; even though Al Masry played all of their 2018 CAF Confederation Cup home matches at that stadium.[11] Al Masry Club Stadium (which was known as Port Said Stadium until 2017) was closed in February 2012 after the incidents of Port Said Stadium riot occurred following a league match between Al Masry and Al Ahly, which resulted in the death 72 Al Ahly fans, 1 Al Masry fan and 1 police officer.[12] On 15 November 2018, the EFA announced that the match will be played on 2 December 2018 in either Ismailia or Port Said.[13]
^Smouha v Al Ittihad match, originally scheduled to be played on 27 October 2018, was postponed due to conflicting with Al Ittihad v Zamalek match in the 2018–19 Arab Club Champions Cup second round, which was set to be played on 27 October 2018.[14] The match was later rescheduled to be played on 7 December 2018.[13]
^Al Jazeera v Petrojet match, originally scheduled to be played on 26 October 2018, was postponed because the two sides were unknown at the time of the match.[14] The match was later rescheduled to be played on 18 December 2018.[13]
^Al Ahly v Pyramids match, originally scheduled to be played on 25 October 2018, was postponed due to conflicting with Al Ahly v ES Sétif match in the 2018 CAF Champions League semi-final, which was set to be played on 23 October 2018.[14] The match was later rescheduled to be played on 28 February 2019.[15] However on 26 February 2019, the EFA decided do postpone all Egypt Cup matches set to be played during the month due to security concerns.[16] The match was later once again rescheduled to be played on 17 August 2019.
^Ismaily v Al Ittihad match, originally scheduled to be played on 2 April 2019, was postponed due to security concerns.[16] The match was later rescheduled to be played on 5 May 2019.
^Zamalek v Misr Lel Makkasa match, originally scheduled to be played on 27 February 2019, was postponed due to security concerns.[16] The match was later rescheduled to be played on 28 August 2019.
^John Antwi transferred from Misr Lel Makkasa to Pyramids during the 2019 summer transfer window.
^Ahmed Raouf transferred from Petrojet to El Entag El Harby during the 2018–19 winter transfer window.
^Eric Traoré transferred from Misr Lel Makkasa to Pyramids during the 2018–19 winter transfer window.
^Achraf Bencharki transferred from Al Hilal to Zamalek during the 2019 summer transfer window.
^Ibrahim Hassan transferred from Zamalek to Pyramids during the 2019 summer transfer window.
