The Race is Getting Smaller

The 2026 World Cup is still a few years away, but for many countries, the dream is already over. The qualifying process has started in most parts of the world, and a number of nations have already been knocked out of the tournament.

Knocked Out in the Americas and Africa

The hardest hit regions so far are the Caribbean and Africa. These were the first to play knockout rounds to reduce the number of teams entering the main group stages.

Here are the teams that have been eliminated from these regions:

• Anguilla
• U.S. Virgin Islands
• Eswatini
• Lesotho
• Mauritius
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Djibouti
• Chad

Defeated in Asia and the Pacific Islands

Asia and Oceania have also wrapped up their brutal opening rounds. In Asia, nine of the lowest-ranked nations were eliminated in two-legged ties. In Oceania, a mini-tournament was held to find the last team for the main qualifiers.

The full list of eliminated teams includes:

• Bhutan
• Brunei
• Guam
• Macau
• Maldives
• Mongolia
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka
• Timor-Leste
• American Samoa
• Cook Islands
• Tonga

Why Europe and South America are Still Full

If you are wondering why you don’t see any teams from Europe or South America on this list, it is because those qualifiers are structured differently. South America uses a single league table where all 10 teams play each other, so no one is eliminated until the very end.

In Europe, the group stage has just begun. While teams like San Marino and Malta will likely struggle, they haven’t been mathematically eliminated yet. As the matches continue, more names will inevitably be added to the elimination list.

More Eliminations on the Horizon

As the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup continue, expect many more nations to be knocked out. The global tournament is expanding, but the qualifying battle is as fierce as ever. For those already out, the countdown to the 2030 World Cup has already started.