FIFA has just struck a major blow. The governing body of world football has just excluded three teams from the next 2026 World Cup.
In 2026, Lionel Messi’s Albiceleste will put its title on the line in June and July alongside the United States, Canada and Mexico, who are all organising this World Cup together.
This 2026 edition will be special because, for the first time, we will be entitled to a World Cup with 48 teams.
“We must design the World Cup of the 21st century. Football is not limited to Europe and Latin America,” FIFA boss Gianni Infantino justified at the time.
Three teams officially excluded by FIFA from the World Cup
While a total of 16 additional teams will be invited, three are officially excluded by FIFA.
Unsurprisingly, and we already knew it, Russia will not be present for this World Cup because of the conflict in Ukraine which is dragging on.
In a statement, the world football body also announced that two other nations will not participate…
These are Congo and Pakistan. For the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFOOT), it is because of a “particularly serious situation of illicit interference by third parties” in its affairs. For the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), it is after having failed to adopt a revised constitution that would guarantee “truly fair and democratic elections”.
For Pakistan, the suspension will only be lifted if the PFF Congress approves the version of the PFF Statutes submitted by FIFA and the AFC (Asian Football Confederation).
Congo, which was last in Group E of the CAF qualifiers, while Pakistan, last in Group G of the AFC Confederation qualifiers, did not have much chance of participating in this World Cup.
This will therefore leave room for other countries, because, with this new formula, Europe will see its contingent increase from 13 to 16 representatives.
Africa will have 9 or even 10 tickets (in the event of success in the intercontinental play-off, Asia will increase from 8 to 9 teams while North and Central America will have 6 to 8 representatives, one more than South America in the best case scenario.
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