The World Cup is arguably the most prestigious international football tournament in the world. Every four years the best thirty two national football teams come together and compete against each other to get their hands on the prestigious World Cup trophy.
There has been 21 editions of the tournament, with this year’s 2018 tournament being the latest one. Throughout the history of the tournament there has been a total of 76 nations which have competed in at least one World Cup tournament.
The latest two teams that will be making their debut in the tournament and bringing the total up to 78 is Iceland and Panama. The Icelandic team qualified for the tournament with relative ease, finishing at the top of their group, two points clear of second place Croatia. Meanwhile Panama qualified in a dramatic fashion, with Roman Torres scoring the winner against Costa Rica in the 88th winner to take them to their first World Cup tournament.
Although the World Cup odds 2018 suggest that neither will make it very far in the competition, both nations do have a very good chance of causing an upset this summer.
There are currently 211 associations affiliated to FIFA, meaning that the majority of countries have still yet to compete at a single World Cup.
The ‘largest’ nation which has failed to qualify for a single World Cup is India. The country is the second most populous country in the world with over 1.2 billion, but has failed to put together a good enough national football team to qualify for the largest football tournament.
The closest they came from competing came in 1950 when the automatically qualified after all the nations in their qualification group withdrew.
However, India also withdrew from the tournament prior to it beginning. India’s eighth attempt of World Cup qualification began on the 12th March 2015 when they were drawn against Nepal, which they won 2-0 on aggregate. The second round would follow just a few months later where they were drawn in a group with Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Guam.
The South Asian nation had a shocking campaign in the second round and ended up finishing bottom of the group, winning one game and losing the other seven.
This infographic takes a look at some of the countries which have failed to make a single appearance at the World Cup. Some of the countries mentioned should come as no surprise, but there are other countries featured which might come as a shocked. Check it out.
There has been 21 editions of the tournament, with this year’s 2018 tournament being the latest one. Throughout the history of the tournament there has been a total of 76 nations which have competed in at least one World Cup tournament.
The latest two teams that will be making their debut in the tournament and bringing the total up to 78 is Iceland and Panama. The Icelandic team qualified for the tournament with relative ease, finishing at the top of their group, two points clear of second place Croatia. Meanwhile Panama qualified in a dramatic fashion, with Roman Torres scoring the winner against Costa Rica in the 88th winner to take them to their first World Cup tournament.
Although the World Cup odds 2018 suggest that neither will make it very far in the competition, both nations do have a very good chance of causing an upset this summer.
There are currently 211 associations affiliated to FIFA, meaning that the majority of countries have still yet to compete at a single World Cup.
The ‘largest’ nation which has failed to qualify for a single World Cup is India. The country is the second most populous country in the world with over 1.2 billion, but has failed to put together a good enough national football team to qualify for the largest football tournament.
The closest they came from competing came in 1950 when the automatically qualified after all the nations in their qualification group withdrew.
However, India also withdrew from the tournament prior to it beginning. India’s eighth attempt of World Cup qualification began on the 12th March 2015 when they were drawn against Nepal, which they won 2-0 on aggregate. The second round would follow just a few months later where they were drawn in a group with Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Guam.
The South Asian nation had a shocking campaign in the second round and ended up finishing bottom of the group, winning one game and losing the other seven.
This infographic takes a look at some of the countries which have failed to make a single appearance at the World Cup. Some of the countries mentioned should come as no surprise, but there are other countries featured which might come as a shocked. Check it out.
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