World Cup
As 2026 World Cup qualifying gets into fast lane, Australia’s Arnold set to break coaching record
Having taken Australia to new heights at last year’s World Cup in Qatar, coach Graham Arnold will scale a peak of his own when the Socceroos kick off qualifying for the 2026 finals in North America.
The 60-year-old will guide his nation in a 59th ‘A’ international against Bangladesh on Thursday, eclipsing the Australian record held with friend and former Socceroos team mate Frank Farina.
While reluctant to make a big deal out of it, Arnold can expect a warm reception at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, particularly if his Socceroos thump the low-ranked South Asians.
Arnold, after all, steered a lightly-regarded squad to two wins and a round-of-16 appearance in Qatar, their best performance at a World Cup.
Just getting the Socceroos to the tournament was a triumph given the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With Australia all but shutting its borders, the Socceroos had to play many of their home qualifiers abroad and only squeezed into the Qatar finals via playoffs.
Qualifying for the 48-team World Cup in 2026 should be a cakewalk by comparison, with eight Asian teams able to qualify directly, double the allocation for Qatar.
Arnold will again hope to break new ground as the first coach to take Australia to two World Cups, while regenerating a squad sapped of experience by player retirements.
“If I asked you how many players aren’t here who were in Qatar? Seventeen,” Arnold told a press conference on Wednesday.
“So, you know, it’s how quick national team football can go.
“I’ve always been one that keeps my eyes open — for not (just) plan A for now. I always have plan B and plan C for the future because things can change very quickly.”
FAILED CAMPAIGNS
Arnold has learned the hard way how to deal with the unexpected – both as player and coach.
He was part of four failed World Cup qualifying campaigns as a Socceroos forward in the 1980s and ’90s.
In front of a huge crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, he missed chances for a match-winning goal against Iran which would have sealed a ticket to the 1998 finals in France.
He was an assistant under Farina when the Socceroos failed to qualify for the next World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Arnold took over as a caretaker boss after Guus Hiddink stepped down following Australia’s drought-breaking appearance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
By his own admission, Arnold’s first stint in charge was a failure as a strong Socceroos squad bowed out of the 2007 Asian Cup in the quarter-finals.
“I tried to be someone who I wasn’t as a human being. I tried to be Guus Hiddink, be hard and all that stuff,” he recalled.
“I honestly say that the boys didn’t respect me as a coach in those days. And they were right because I hadn’t done anything as a coach.”
When Arnold returned for his second stint as boss in 2018 he carried more weight, having won domestic championships at two clubs.
Still, his ebullience occasionally got ahead of him.
His insistence that Australia would win every match at the 2019 Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates came back to bite him when the hosts knocked them out of the quarter-finals.
Arnold will have the chance to make amends at the next Asian Cup in Qatar, which starts in January.
He will hope to emulate Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham Hotspur boss who coached the Socceroos to their maiden Asian Cup title at the 2015 event on home soil.
Without a single player in a top European league, Arnold’s squad boasts more heart than talent, and he will hope to unearth a gem or two before the next World Cup.
If none are forthcoming, Arnold will likely shrug, clear his throat and wax lyrical about “Aussie DNA”, the term he coined for the grittiness and graft that carried the Socceroos to acclaim in Qatar.
-Reuters
Canada Soccer cheekily courted Italy’s crestfallen supporters on Saturday, urging them to swap their Azzurri blue strips for maple leaf red after the four-time champions suffered another World Cup failure.
“Dear Italian soccer fans, don’t wait four more years. Swap your jersey for Canada,” the sports governing body posted on X on Friday, directing fans to gather outside Cafe Diplomatico, a popular restaurant in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood.
The light-hearted appeal followed Italy’s third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup after a playoff defeat by Bosnia on Tuesday, a setback that led to the resignations of coach Gennaro Gattuso and federation president Gabriele Gravina.
Canada, who will co-host the World Cup alongside Mexico and the United States, seized the moment to call for fans to support their country instead.
Local media reported hundreds of supporters queued for the Italy-for-Canada jersey exchange, though the offer proved more symbolic than transactional. Canada Soccer handed out 2026 shirts and posters to fans — and did so without collecting a single Italian jersey in return.
-Reuters
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World Cup
Nigeria and Other Top-Ranked Teams Missing At 2026 World Cup Raise Questions Over Global Football Balance
By Kunle Solaja.
Despite the expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 48 teams, several high-profile nations—including some ranked within the top 30 globally—will not feature at the 2026 finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, underlining the increasingly unforgiving nature of modern qualification.
The most striking absence is the four-time world champions Italy national football team, who failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup after losing on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European playoffs.
Once a permanent fixture at the global showpiece, Italy’s continued absence has triggered widespread criticism at home, with many describing the situation as a national sporting crisis.
Europe’s Big Casualties
Italy are not alone among Europe’s elite in missing out. Countries such as Denmark’s national football team, Poland’s national football team and Serbia’s national football team, all of whom have consistently hovered around the top tiers of FIFA rankings in recent years, also failed to make the cut.
Poland’s elimination is particularly significant, as it likely marks the end of World Cup ambitions for veteran striker Robert Lewandowski, while Denmark’s absence comes after years of steady progress on the international stage.
Serbia, boasting a generation of technically gifted players, were also among those eliminated during the qualification process.
African Heavyweights Left Out
Africa will send a record number of teams to the expanded tournament, yet notable absentees remain.
Three-time African champions Nigeria national football team and five-time AFCON winners Cameroon national football team both failed to qualify after disappointing campaigns.
Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions are among Africa’s big names missing at the World Cup.
Nigeria’s absence is particularly glaring given the quality of players such as Victor Osimhen, while Cameroon fell short despite a squad featuring several Europe-based stars.
South American Decline
In South America, the Chile national football team continue their dramatic fall from grace. Once Copa América champions, Chile finished bottom of the CONMEBOL qualifying table, extending their World Cup absence to three editions.
Emerging Pattern: Expansion Without Guarantees
The absence of these established football nations highlights a key reality: even with 48 slots, World Cup qualification remains fiercely competitive.
While debutants such as Cape Verde, Curaçao and Uzbekistan have secured historic places at the finals, traditional powers have faltered under pressure.
Analysts note that this shift reflects a broader trend in global football—greater parity, improved development structures in smaller nations, and declining dominance of traditional heavyweights.
A World Cup Without Familiar Faces
The 2026 tournament will therefore present a unique landscape—one where emerging nations share the stage while several established powers watch from home.
For fans, it promises freshness and unpredictability. For the absent giants, however, it serves as a stark reminder that reputation alone is no longer enough to secure a place at football’s biggest event.
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By Kunle Solaja.
A remarkable storyline is emerging ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as no fewer than seven countries have secured returns to the global football showpiece after prolonged absences spanning decades.
Leading the list are Haiti and DR Congo, both of which are back on the World Cup stage after an astonishing 52-year absence. Haiti last featured at the tournament in 1974, the same year DR Congo, then known as Zaire, made their only previous appearance.
European sides Scotland national football team, Norway national football team and Austria national football team are also ending 28-year waits.
Scotland’s last outing came in 1998, while Norway and Austria have similarly endured long spells away from the competition despite periods of promise in European football.
South America will see the return of the Paraguay national football team, who are back after a 16-year hiatus, having last appeared at the 2010 finals in South Africa.
On the African continent, the South Africa national football team will make a long-awaited comeback after 16 years, their previous participation coming when they hosted the tournament in 2010.
The wave of returning nations highlights the expanding opportunities created by the enlarged 48-team format for the 2026 World Cup, which will be staged across Canada, the United States and Mexico.
For many of these countries, qualification marks not just a sporting achievement but a generational milestone, rekindling national pride and offering a new era of players the chance to perform on football’s biggest stage after decades in the wilderness.
With traditional powers and returning underdogs set to collide, the 2026 tournament is already shaping up to be one of the most diverse and unpredictable in World Cup history.
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