Who Is Not Going To The 2026 World Cup?

Who Is Not Going To The 2026 World Cup?

With the 2026 World Cup fast approaching, there have already been a few fairytale stories before a ball has even been kicked in North America. With the new format we’ve seen an increase of teams qualifying for the tournament; a total of 48 teams will participate, which is an increase of 16 from the previous 2022 World Cup.

With this new format Uzbekistan, Jordan, Curacao and Cape Verde are all going to be making their first-ever appearances at a World Cup. Along with these four, Suriname have the chance to make it five debutants if they can qualify through the Inter-Confederation Play-Offs; should they do so, they would become the tournament's lowest-ranked side to ever qualify. Suriname currently ranks 123rd in the world.

However, even with an increased tournament capacity, there are still some big countries who have missed the chance to qualify or are holding on by the skin of their teeth. We’ll have a look at some of the world’s biggest countries who are close to or have failed to qualify for this year’s tournament.

Serbia

Starting off in Europe, we have our first nation, Serbia. The nation of Serbia has qualified for a total of three World Cups, which doesn’t sound like too much; however, they have been formally known as Yugoslavia, who qualified a total of eight times from 1930 to 1990; then we have FR Yugoslavia, who qualified in 1998; and finally, we have Serbia and Montenegro, who qualified in 2006.

Serbia has a rich football history, with the country's biggest club, Red Star Belgrade, winning the Champions League, or as it was known then, the European Cup, back in 1991. So to see them not qualify for the tournament is a bit of a shock.

When looking at their squad, you truly wonder how they failed to even make it to the play-offs; with names such as Nikola Milenkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic, Filip Kostic, Lazar Samardzic and Dusan Vlahovic, it’s fair to say they certainly underachieved.

Hungary

Moving on to our second European country, Hungary. Hungary have qualified for the World Cup a total of nine times, from their first in 1934 to their last in 1986. It’s fair to say that since 1986 they’ve struggled massively to qualify for the World Cup. This year would be no different, as they looked all but set to qualify for the World Cup play-offs; all they had to do was not lose at home to Ireland. Up stepped Troy Parrott, who scored a hat trick which included a 96th-minute winner to knock Hungary out and send Ireland into the play-offs.

Across their golden era, Hungary made it to two World Cup finals, in 1938 and 1954, and both times they failed to take home the glory, as they lost 4-2 to Italy in 1938 and then 3-2 to West Germany in 1954 despite being 2-0 up in just eight minutes.

However, despite this 40-year wait for a World Cup appearance, they still remain a top side; they sit 41st in the FIFA rankings and have an abundance of talent in their squad, such as players like Willi Orban, Milos Kerkez and Dominik Szoboszlai. You would expect them to at least make it to the play-offs.

Nigeria

Moving continents, we’ve added the African giants, Nigeria. Three-time AFCON winners qualified for their first World Cup back in 1994; they managed to qualify for the next five in a row. That run stopped in 2022 as they failed to make it six in a row.

Despite the heartbreak of failing to qualify in 2022, they went into this year’s World Cup Qualifiers as favourites; however, they would miss out on automatic qualification to South Africa by just one point, so they had to try through the play-offs. They saw off Gabon in extra time in the semi-finals and faced DR Congo, where the winner goes to the World Cup.

Things started perfectly as Frank Onyeka made it 1-0 in just three minutes. DR Congo would equalise on the 32-minute mark, as the game would remain 1-1 up until the end of extra time, where, unfortunately for Nigeria, they would go on to lose 3-4 on penalties, meaning they’ve missed out on their second World Cup in a row.

Cameroon

Staying in Africa, we have five-time AFCON winners, Cameroon. They have been in a total of eight different World Cups, spanning from 1982 to 2022. Their best-ever finish was the quarter-finals in 1990, as they became the first-ever African side to do so.

On paper they have a very talented squad with Premier League players such as Brighton’s Carlos Baleba and Manchester United’s Bryan Mbuemo. However, they suffered the same fate as Nigeria; they finished second in their group, and in the play-off semi-final, they were undone by a 91st-minute Chancel Mbemba winner as DR Congo knocked them out.

This will be the second World Cup they’ve missed out of the last three after qualifying for six out of a possible seven, from 1990 to 2014. Highlights include that quarter-final finish and becoming the first African country to defeat Brazil at a World Cup, which they did in 2022 in Qatar.

Chile

Our final country on the list will be South America’s Chile. A country that has had quite a sensational fall-off in recent years. They’ve qualified for nine previous World Cups, from their first in 1930 to their most recent in 2014.

Chile’s peak as a footballing nation came around the mid-2010s, as in 2016 they reached their peak as a country, as they were ranked 3rd in the world by FIFA following back-to-back Copa Americas, as they defeated Argentina both times in the final on penalties.

From stars such as Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo and Gary Medel, they were South America’s number one team and would have no trouble qualifying for World Cups. However, fast forward 10 years and the difference is quite phenomenal. They finished dead last in the qualification table, having won two games from 18, scoring nine and having just a total of 11 points. It's quite sad to see the fall-off of what was once an incredible football team.