Major nations who failed to qualify for the World Cup, with Italy and Netherlands topping the flops
- Michael Graham
- 25 March 2022
It has not always been plain sailing for major footballing nations to reach the World Cup, with Italy the latest to suffer.
European champions Italy will be missing from the 2022 World Cup later this year after they remarkably imploded in the qualification play-offs.
There will be a long inquest by the Italians into that, but they are far from the only big footballing nation to have failed to reach the World Cup finals.
In fact, in the last 50 years or so it seems to happen to someone more often than not.
Argentina 1970
The thought of a World Cup without Argentina is one that just does not compute. However, in 1970 it was a reality.
It should be stressed that Argentina were not the force they are now back then. Four years earlier they reached the quarter-finals and it was their best performance since the inaugural tournament in 1930, when they were runners-up.
It was still a shock when they didn't make it to Mexico, though, with Peru delivering the fatal blow in their qualifying campaign.
England 1974
When England won the World Cup in 1966, it was generally assumed that the inventors of football had finally arrived as a force.
The 1970 World Cup didn't back that up, although tough draws and a hostile climate at least offered some excuses. By 1974, though, it had all came crashing down around their ears.
England were in a qualification group with Poland and Wales. An away draw with Wales and away defeat to Poland had hurt them, but qualification was still in their hands going into the final game.
That was home to Poland, and goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski produced the game of his life to hold the Three Lions to a draw at Wembley and deny them a place at the World Cup.
Czechoslovakia 1978
Czechoslovakia 'pulled an Italy' back in 1978.
They were the champions of Europe in 1976, beating West Germany in the final in a penalty shoot-out. It was the one when Antonín Panenka wrote himself into football folklore by chipping his match-winning penalty down the middle of the goal.
Just two years later, Czechoslovakia failed to qualify for the World Cup in Argentina. Their qualification group only had three teams in it, and the other two were Scotland and Wales.
Czechoslovakia lost matches to them both and Scotland went to Argentina.
Netherlands 1982
The Netherlands were World Cup finalists in 1974 and 1978, so then failing to qualify for the 1982 tournament was a big shock.
Their problem was that the great Johan Cruyff generation of the 70s had aged and moved on, and what was left behind them was just not good enough to pick up the baton.
In their defence, they were drawn in a tough qualifying group that featured both Belgium and France, but Republic of Ireland managed to finish above them too, so the excuses ran out pretty quickly.
Netherlands 1986
Okay, for a footballing country like the Netherlands to fail to make it to one World Cup is understandable. For them to blow it twice in a row is unthinkable.
By 1986 the Netherlands had rebuilt to a point where the likes of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Ronald Koeman, and Frank Rijkaard were all in their side. In fact, it was pretty much the same team that won the European Championships two years later.
It was neighbours Belgium who denied them again, this time in a two-legged play-off.
France 1990 (and 1994)
France's transformation into a veritable powerhouse of can be traced back to their abject failures in the 1990s.
Les Blues were semi-finalists in Mexico in 1986 and boasted a team of real quality, but it was an ageing one. They failed to transition generations and vowed it would never happen again.
They failed to qualify for back-to-back World Cups but, as we now know, something special was building at Clairefontaine…
England 1994
Of England's three failures to reach the World Cup, the 1994 one is the one that hurts the most.
Italia 90 and Gazzamania had revitalised the game in England and the public's love for it, but the truth is that the team that thrilled so many in Italy was long gone by the time the World Cup qualifiers began.
They had already failed at Euro 92 and it was hoped that was just a one-off. It wasn't, and they had to endure the humiliation of a World Cup happening without them just four years after narrowly missing out on a place in the final.
Netherlands 2002
The Netherlands had appeared to learn their lessons and they had established a conveyor belt of talent by the turn of the century.
Gullit, van Basten and others were long gone, but the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Clarence Seedorf, Mark Van Bommel, Patrick Kluivert, Frank De Boer, Edwin Van Der Sar, Marc Overmars and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst had emerged to replace them.
The qualifying draw was kind to them too. Portugal were in their group, but with Ireland, Estonia, Cyprus and Andorra there too, Netherlands looked certainties for at least a play-off spot.
That never happened for them, with Ireland pinching second place and going on to South Korea and Japan.
Netherlands 2018
If you had any doubts that the Netherlands are the kings of World Cup failure, then this must surely eradicate them.
Yes, this was not the same kind of star-studded team that they boasted in the past, but it still should have had enough to get to the World Cup.
Granted, the draw wasn't kind. France were in their qualifying group, but it was Sweden who denied them a place in the play-offs on goal difference.
The Netherlands had reached the final of the 2010 World Cup and the semi-finals in 2014, yet this demonstrated yet again that disaster is never far away for the Oranje.
Italy 2018
At least the Netherlands weren't alone in terms of big football nations being absent from the 2018 World Cup.
Italy were always up against it in terms of automatic qualification. They were drawn in the same group as Spain, and predictably the Spanish won the group.
They did cement second place in the group, though, earning themselves a spot in the play-offs.
There they met - you probably guessed it - Sweden. A solidary goal from Jakob Johansson settled it. It was Johansson's only international goal of his career, and it meant Sweden had eliminated both the Netherlands and Italy before the World Cup Finals had even kicked off. Impressive.
Italy 2022
For all Italy could probably be excused their 2018 failure, it's difficult to make excuses for their most recent failure.
Due to Covid-19, the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign began before Euro 2020 took place. By the time Euro 2020 started, Italy had won three games out of three in their qualifying group.
After winning Euro 2020, they drew four of their remaining five games in World Cup qualifying and finished second behind Switzerland.
Thet still had the play-offs, and a home semi-final against North Macedonia should have been straightforward enough, but they managed to lose it in stoppage time.
What does all this mean? Well in short it means that Matthew Upson has scored a goal in the knockout stages of the World Cup more recently that Italy, and that will remain the case until at least 2026.
