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.
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.
