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Countries Who Nearly Made The World Cup

Can you name the countries who have never qualified and were one result away from booking a place at football's most illustrious tournament but just missed out?
Not including countries who qualified but withdrew from the tournament
Quiz by
nichster
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Last updated: April 1, 2026
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First submittedJanuary 1, 2024
Times taken585
Average score69.2%
Rating4.71
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UEFA
1938
Estonia
Latvia
1954
Saar
1986
Albania
2002
Belarus
2022
North Macedonia
2026
Kosovo
CAF
1958,1970 and 2002
Sudan
1994,1998, 2006 and 2018
Zambia
1994 and 2002
Zimbabwe
1998
Guinea
Kenya
Republic of the Congo
2002
Liberia
2010, 2018 and 2026
Gabon
2010 and 2026
Benin
2010 and 2022
Mali
2010, 2014 and 2026
Burkina Faso
2014
Ethiopia
2018
Uganda
AFC
1986 and 2018
Syria
2006 and 2010
Bahrain
2014
Oman
OFC
2026
New Caledonia
CONCACAF
2026
Guatemala
Suriname
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9 Comments
+1
Level 57
May 6, 2025
I am looking forward to hopefully updating this next month!
+2
Level 88
Jan 1, 2024
Interesting quiz. Poor Zambia. Hope they make it at an upcoming one.

Gold star who anyone who gets the least guessed one!

+1
Level 78
Jan 7, 2024
No way it's at 11%.
+1
Level 81
Jan 7, 2024
Great quiz! I've come to collect my Gold star and point out that Syria would've advanced to the play-offs in 2018 even if they had beaten Australia, so that year shouldn't be there
+1
Level 57
Jan 7, 2024
If they had beaten South Korea, they would have gone through automatically.
+3
Level 81
Jan 7, 2024
Damn, true. They were really close, would've really been something if they made it
+1
Level 57
Jan 21, 2024
Especially given the context in the country at the time, it would have been an inspirational story of a national team overcoming all odds to qualify for the greatest football tournament.
+1
Level 68
Jan 7, 2024
I think ukraine could be on this list in 2014? was the highest ranked team not to qualify for the brazil WC after losing the knock-out tie to france (2-0 home win 3-0 loss) unless they'd be counted in the ussr teams
+2
Level 57
Jan 7, 2024
Ukraine qualified for the World Cup before 2014