Tag: 2026 World Cup

With a record 48 national teams set to compete, the 2026 World Cup will offer several countries their first taste of football’s biggest stage.

While Brazil have played in all 22 previous tournaments, 132 of FIFA’s 211 member associations have never participated.

Cape Verde

With a population of around 600,000, Cape Verde, an archipelago off Africa’s west coast, became the second smallest country to reach a World Cup finals after Iceland in 2018, when they qualified in October. However, that record was soon surpassed by Curacao.

Cape Verde earned their spot by defeating Eswatini, capping a remarkable rise in football over the past 40 years. 

The nation played its first World Cup qualifiers in 1990, gradually building a competitive team with players of Cape Verdean descent from around the world. Their current squad includes six Dutch-born players and one Irish-born player: Shamrock Rovers defender Roberto Lopes. Lopes, 33, was born in Dublin but qualifies for Cape Verde through his father and was recruited via LinkedIn.

Curacao

The tiny Caribbean island of Curacao will become the smallest nation ever to play in a World Cup after drawing with Steve McClaren’s Jamaica to secure qualification. The record previously belonged to Iceland in 2018, but Curacao, with a population of just over 150,000—comparable to Cambridge or Huddersfield—and a land area of 171 square miles, surpasses them in smallness.

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Former England manager McClaren resigned after Jamaica, needing a win for their first World Cup appearance since 1998, drew 0-0, including a late penalty that was overturned by VAR. Curacao’s coach Dick Advocaat, absent from the match for personal reasons, will become the oldest manager at a World Cup at 78, surpassing Otto Rehhagel’s record with Greece in 2010.

Curacao, located 37 miles off the coast of Venezuela, only became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. Ten years ago, they were ranked 150th in FIFA’s world rankings; today, they sit 82nd.

Jordan

Jordan has also secured its first-ever World Cup qualification. The Arab nation first entered the qualifiers 40 years ago but had never advanced until now. They clinched their spot by finishing second in AFC Group B, behind South Korea.

In 2016, former Tottenham, Portsmouth, and QPR manager Harry Redknapp briefly oversaw Jordan’s World Cup qualifying campaign, recording an 8-0 win over Bangladesh and a 5-1 loss to Australia.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has also progressed from the Asian qualifiers for the first time. They previously came close to qualifying for Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014, falling in the final rounds. The team features notable talents, including Manchester City defender Abdukodir Khusanov, the first Uzbek to play in the Premier League.

Who else could join them?

Suriname narrowly missed their first World Cup appearance after leading their qualifying group for most of the campaign. A final-round defeat to Guatemala allowed Panama, who beat El Salvador 3-0, to secure automatic qualification. 

Suriname will have another chance in the inter-confederation play-off in March; a successful campaign would make them the lowest-ranked team ever to qualify, currently sitting 123rd in the world. The South American nation has a population of just over 600,000, roughly the size of Leeds.

Also participating in the inter-confederation play-off is New Caledonia. The French territory, comprising dozens of islands in the South Pacific, has a population just under 300,000. Their squad consists largely of part-time players from the 10-team New Caledonia Super Ligue and others who compete no higher than the fifth tier of French football.

England are set to benefit from tennis-style seeding at next summer’s World Cup and avoid Spain and Argentina until the semifinals and France until the final — if all those teams win their groups.

FIFA is introducing a tennis-style system for the 2026 World Cup knockout stages, having adopted a similar format for the Club World Cup earlier this year.

The top two teams in the current FIFA rankings — Spain and Argentina — will be on opposite draw pathways, as will the third and fourth-ranked sides, France and England.

Those four teams would then be placed in different quadrants of the 32-team knockout phase if they all come top of their groups.

That would mean England potentially not coming up against European champions Spain or world champions Argentina until the semifinals, and remaining apart from France until the final.

The draw for the finals will take place in Washington D.C. on Dec. 5, starting at 5 p.m. UK time(6 p.m. Nigerian time).

England are among the top seeds, while Scotland are in pot three. England and Scotland could be drawn against each other, but that possibility will be removed if England draw a European opponent from pot two.

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A maximum of two European teams can be placed in each group. Teams from the other confederations must be kept apart.

The draw is expected to last between 45 and 50 minutes. A significant chunk of time will be saved because group position by pot has been predetermined rather than forming part of the draw as it has in the past.

For instance, if Scotland are drawn into Group A, as the team from pot three they would automatically be put in position two, or ‘A2’ for the purposes of the fixture schedule. The positioning varies from group to group.

Kick-off times and the allocation of matches to stadiums will be announced on Dec. 6, the day after the draw. The allocation process will be designed to ensure the best possible conditions for all teams while, where possible, enabling fans all over the world to watch their teams play live across different time zones.

Organisers indicated on Friday there will be no movement of matches away from current host cities, despite U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to relocate games.

The PA news agency also understands Haiti and Iran will not be deliberately excluded from playing matches in the United States, despite fans from both countries being subject to travel bans into the US.

Pot 1: Hosts Canada, Mexico and the US; Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria and Australia.

Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Pot 4:Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, and the winners from the European play-off A, B, C and D, and the FIFA Play-Off tournament 1 and 2.

Lionel Messi wants to play for Argentina in next year’s World Cup, but he says he will listen to his body before deciding whether he can make that dream come true.

The 38-year-old striker for Inter Miami of MLS led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title and yearns to be on the field when the “Albiceleste” defend the crown next year in North America.

Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi told NBC News in an interview broadcast on Monday that he will see next year how his body feels before deciding on whether or not he can play in the World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

 “It’s something extraordinary to be able to be in a World Cup and I would love to,” said Messi, who turns 39 next June.

 “I would like to be there, to be well and be an important part of helping my national team, if I am there.

 “And I’m going to assess that on a day-to-day basis when I start preseason next year with Inter and see if I can really be 100%, if I can be useful to the group, to the national team, and then make a decision.”

Messi, who has been playing professionally since 2004, wants the chance for one more star turn on football’s biggest stage.

 “I’m really eager because it’s a World Cup. We’re coming off winning the last World Cup and being able to defend it on the field again is spectacular because it’s always a dream to play with the national team, especially in official competitions.”

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Messi, who debuted with Barcelona in La Liga at age 17, joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 and moved to MLS in 2023.

 “The truth is that I like everything about living here,” Messi said of Miami.

 “I spent a lot of time in Barcelona, which for me is an extraordinary city, where I grew up and had many spectacular moments, and which we miss a lot.

 “But Miami is a city that allows us to live very well, that makes us enjoy life, that allows us to be calm, that allows the kids to be themselves and live day to day.”

Messi has 195 appearances for the Argentine national team, scoring 114 goals.

Morocco has become the first African nation to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following a dominant 5-0 victory over Niger in Rabat.

The Atlas Lions clinched top spot in Group E with ease, as Ismaeil Saibari struck twice in the first half before Ayoub El Kaabi, Hamza Igamane, and Azzedine Ounahi added second-half goals against 10-man Niger, who had Abdul-Latif Goumey sent off.

With the win, Morocco joins 16 other nations already confirmed for the expanded 48-team tournament in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

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This qualification marks Morocco’s seventh World Cup appearance and the first time in history that they have reached the global showpiece three times in a row.

The North Africans continue to build on their historic 2022 World Cup run, where they stunned the world by becoming the first African side to reach the semi-finals, defeating Portugal in the quarter-finals before falling to eventual runners-up France.