In mid-2017, FIFA (International Football Federation) announced that the World Cup would be played by 48 teams from the 2026 edition onwards, breaking with the 32-team format adopted since France in 1998.
According to the entity, the decision aimed to make football more global, giving the opportunity to countries whose teams do not have as much tradition in the sport. Increasing revenue and attracting more political support from federations were also part of Gianni Infantino, FIFA president’s wish list.
In the wake of the new resolution, four teams will make their debut at the World Cup in North America — Cape Verde, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Curaçao, the latter being the smallest nation in territorial extension ever qualified for an edition of the World Cup. It is the highest number of debutants since 2006, when six teams debuted in World Cups at the tournament in Germany.
With the increase in the number of participating teams, however, another natural consequence is a likely reduction in the technical level of matches, at least based on the FIFA men’s national team ranking, prepared since August 1993.
With the increase in the number of participants, the average ranking of teams qualified for the World Cup also increased compared to previous editions.
For the World Cup that starts this Thursday (11), the average ranking of the 48 teams is 32.5th, based on FIFA’s last official update, on April 1st, before the last rounds of preparatory friendlies.
The worst-ranked teams in the 2026 World Cup are New Zealand (85th), which returns for its third participation, after falling in the first phase, without any victories, in 1982 and 2010, and Haiti (83rd), which returns after its first and until then only participation, in 1974, when it accumulated three defeats.
The worst clash in the first phase must be between newcomer Cape Verde, 67th in the ranking, and Saudi Arabia, 61st in the world, reaching a combined 128th.
The 1994 World Cup, in the United States, was the last with 24 teams, a number adopted since 1982. The edition that made the Brazilian team the first four-time world champion was also the one with the best average ranking, based on the placement of the teams classified at the beginning of the tournament: 17th, approximately.
The worst-ranked team in the edition 32 years ago was Bolivia, which was ranked 43rd in the world at the time, in its last participation in the World Cup since then.
Furthermore, the “worst confrontation” of that World Cup, considering the sum of the rankings of the participating teams, was between Bolivia and South Korea, with the Asian team at the time occupying the position of 37th in the world, with a combined ranking of 80th.
From the World Cup in France, in 1998, until the one in Qatar, in 2022, the average ranking started to fluctuate in the range of twentieth place, with the best level of 21.7th (in 1998 and 2002), and the worst of 26th, in South Africa, in 2010.
In the seven editions held between 1998 and 2022, the worst team that managed to qualify, based on the FIFA ranking, was North Korea, then 105th in the world in 2010 — the North Koreans scored just one goal in the World Cup played in South Africa, in the 2-1 defeat to Brazil, and conceded 12, most of them in the 7-0 defeat against Portugal.
The worst clash in World Cup history took place in Russia, in 2018, involving the hosts, at the time ranked 70th in the rankings, and Saudi Arabia (67th).
In the last World Cup, in Qatar, Ghana was the lowest ranked team (61st), and the worst confrontation was between the home team (50th) and Ecuador (44th).
