The top countries that could miss the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is just months away, as some continents have already concluded their qualification processes, while other nations in different continents have already secured their place in the finals in North America next year.

It will be the first World Cup after the 2022 edition of the competition, and it promises to be one of the best we have had in recent times.

Football is always evolving, and FIFA is at the forefront of some of the best innovations in the game.

As the world’s governing body, they aim to increase the number of nations participating in the tournament and have now expanded the number of teams competing in 2026.

The 2022 edition was held in Qatar, and that could be the last time we see one nation host the tournament because of FIFA’s expansion of the number of participants.

32 nations competed in Qatar three years ago, but the 2026 competition will see 48 nations compete in the USA, Canada, and Mexico to be crowned the world’s champions.

There are many critics of the newly expanded system of the competition, but a recent trend has seen FIFA want to take the word ‘world’ seriously, as they want more countries and clubs to get a chance to play in worldwide competitions.

This expansion is welcomed by several other fans who want to see their team compete to win the World Cup sooner.

Every fan who wants to buy FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets would have to be sure their country has qualified for the tournament first.

In every edition, several top nations fail to qualify for the World Cup, and the 2026 edition will not be different.

Some nations have already missed out on it, and many others are at risk of the same fate, so we discuss them in this article.

Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the famous countries in the footballing world, and they have some world-class players.

Victor Osimhen sold several Napoli tickets when he played for them before leaving for Galatasaray this summer.

Ademola Lookman was the hero of Atalanta when they won the Europa League in 2024, yet the Super Eagles are at risk of missing the World Cup in 2026.

South Africa is set to earn automatic qualification from their group, while Benin is second and set to take the playoff route via the second-best finish.

Nigeria also missed the 2022 edition and is about to have an entire generation of world-class talents never play for them at the World Cup.

Cameroon

Cameroon competed at the 2022 World Cup, and they famously beat Brazil in their final group game.

For years, they have been one of the African nation that qualifies and flies their flag at the tournament, but they are struggling behind Cape Verde.

Cape Verde is a tiny nation of just 524,877 people, but they lead their group and could qualify ahead of Cameroon.

This means the Cameroonians will have to face the unpredictable playoffs to qualify for the competition next.

Sweden

Sweden has two of the best strikers in the Premier League at the moment, with Viktor Gyokeres one of the members of Mikel Arteta’s dream squad at Arsenal, while Liverpool splashed the cash after a long saga to sign Alexander Isak and make him one of the members of the Galactico squad they are building.

However, after two qualifying matches, they have one point in their group and are already five points behind Switzerland.

They have four more matches to play, but they must improve, or Isak and Gyokeres will watch the tournament at home.

Ukraine

Ukraine is doing its best to keep some people back home smiling despite its ongoing war with Russia.

The Ukrainians have some of the best players in Europe, including Oleksandr Zinchenko, Illia Zabarnyi and Georgiy Sudakov, among others.

These top players should help them do better, but they are struggling behind France and Iceland after two games.

France will likely earn the automatic spot, but will Ukraine qualify ahead of Iceland for the playoffs?

Turkiye

Turkiye’s embarrassing home loss to Spain in their last qualifying game means they are at risk of missing the World Cup.

They have a league that is rebuilding its image and competitiveness, yet there is a chance they might not play at the World Cup.

Kenan Yildiz and Arda Guler are young and will have many more World Cups to play in, but as things stand, they must get wins in their next two games, or Georgia could increase the current gap between them and secure the playoff spot at the end of the qualifying series.

Italy

Italy has missed the last two World Cups, which is surprising for a country that was champion in 2006.

Next year makes it exactly 20 years since they were world champions, and there is no better way to celebrate it than to qualify for the competition in North America.

However, they have started the qualification series poorly as Norway now leads their group after five games.

In the last break, Italy won both games to overtake Israel and become second in the standings. However, if they lose to Norway again, they will likely finish behind the Israelis and the Norwegians, missing out on yet another World Cup.

Serbia

Serbia has some of the world’s best players, including Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, and they qualified for the World Cup in 2022.

The Serbs are still one of the finest teams in European football, yet they are not meeting expectations so far.

For a team that boasts the types of talents they have, it was embarrassing for them to lose 5-0 at home to England in their last game.

That loss set them back in their bid to qualify for the next World Cup, and their players could have a hard time recovering from it in the next few games.

Albania is their biggest threat to qualification now because England will certainly take the automatic spot, and Serbia must wake up and win its remaining games if they want to make the 2026 showpiece.

Conclusion

There are still many matches left to play in some of these continents, but if the teams on this list do not improve, which could mean going on a winning run for some of them, they will miss out on the World Cup.