List of national teams with no FIFA World Cup appearances

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Luxembourg (pictured before a qualifier in 1969) are the only country to enter all 19 World Cup qualification tournaments and never qualify.

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The first tournament took place in 1930 and it has occurred every four years since then, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.

Every World Cup tournament other than the first has involved a qualification phase to determine which teams qualify for the tournament itself, often referred to as the World Cup finals (as distinct from the World Cup final, which refers to the final match of the tournament, played to determine the overall winners). As of the 2014 tournament, 133 of the 209 current FIFA affiliates have not appeared in a World Cup finals tournament. In the tables below all qualification tournaments where the national team played at least one game are counted as attempts to qualify, even if the team subsequently withdrew or got disqualified. Withdrawals and disqualifications before the start of the qualification are excluded, as are occasions where teams withdrew or were disqualified during their campaign and had all their results from that campaign annulled.

By confederation

The 2018 World Cup qualifying process is currently underway. Marked with † (a dagger) are teams that are still in contention for a place in the finals and may potentially make their FIFA World Cup debut in 2018.

AFC countries

35 out of the 46 active FIFA and AFC members haven't appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Syria† 13 1950 2014
 Malaysia 12 1974 2018
 Chinese Taipei 11 1978 2018
 Hong Kong† 11 1974 2014
 Singapore 11 1978 2018
 Thailand† 11 1974 2014
 Bahrain 10 1978 2018
 Qatar† 10 1978 2014
 Bangladesh 9 1986 2018
 Macau 9 1982 2018
 Yemen[upper-alpha 1] 9 1986 2018
 India 8 1986 2018
 Jordan† 8 1986 2014
 Pakistan 8 1990 2018
   Nepal 7 1986 2018
 Oman† 7 1990 2014
 Sri Lanka 7 1994 2018
 Lebanon† 6 1994 2014
 Maldives 6 1998 2018
 Tajikistan 6 1998 2018
 Turkmenistan 6 1998 2018
 Vietnam† 6 1994 2014
 Cambodia 5 1998 2018
 Kyrgyzstan† 5 1998 2014
 Mongolia 5 2002 2018
 Uzbekistan† 5 1998 2014
 Afghanistan 4 2006 2018
 Laos 4 2002 2018
 Palestine† 4 2002 2014
 Philippines 4 1998 2018
 Brunei 3 1986 2018
 Myanmar 3 2010 2018
 Timor-Leste 3 2010 2018
 Guam 2 2002 2018
 Bhutan 1 2018 2018

CAF countries

41 out of the 54 active FIFA and CAF members haven't appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Kenya 12 1974 2018
 Sudan 12 1958 2018
 Zambia† 12 1970 2014
 Ethiopia 11 1962 2018
 Guinea† 11 1974 2014
 Malawi 10 1978 2018
 Sierra Leone 10 1974 2018
 Zimbabwe 10 1970 2014
 Liberia 9 1982 2018
 Libya† 9 1970 2014
 Madagascar 9 1982 2018
 Tanzania 9 1974 2018
 Benin 8 1974 2018
 Congo† 8 1974 2014
 Gambia 8 1982 2018
 Mozambique 8 1982 2018
 Uganda† 8 1978 2014
 Burkina Faso† 7 1978 2014
 Gabon† 7 1990 2014
 Lesotho 7 1974 2018
 Mauritius 7 1974 2018
 Namibia 7 1994 2018
 Niger 7 1978 2018
 Swaziland 7 1994 2018
 Botswana 6 1994 2018
 Burundi 6 1994 2018
 Guinea-Bissau 6 1998 2018
 Mauritania 6 1978 2018
 Rwanda 6 1998 2018
 Somalia 6 1982 2018
 Chad 5 2002 2018
 Equatorial Guinea 5 2002 2018
 Seychelles 5 2002 2018
 Cape Verde† 4 2002 2014
 Djibouti 4 2002 2018
 Eritrea 4 2002 2018
 Mali† 4 2002 2014
 São Tomé and Príncipe 4 2002 2018
 Central African Republic 3 2002 2018
 Comoros 3 2010 2018
 South Sudan 1 2018 2018

CONCACAF countries

25 out of the 35 active FIFA and CONCACAF members haven't appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Curaçao[upper-alpha 2] 16 1958 2018
 Guatemala† 14 1958 2014
 Suriname 14 1962 2018
 Antigua and Barbuda 10 1974 2018
 Guyana 10 1978 2018
 Panama† 10 1978 2014
 Puerto Rico 9 1974 2018
 Barbados 8 1978 2018
 Dominican Republic 8 1978 2018
 Bermuda 7 1970 2018
 Grenada 7 1982 2018
 Nicaragua 7 1994 2018
 Saint Lucia 7 1994 2018
 Aruba 6 1998 2018
 Belize 6 1998 2018
 Cayman Islands 6 1998 2018
 Dominica 6 1998 2018
 Saint Kitts and Nevis 6 1998 2018
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines† 6 1994 2014
 Anguilla 5 2002 2018
 Bahamas 5 2002 2018
 British Virgin Islands 5 2002 2018
 Montserrat 5 2002 2018
 Turks and Caicos Islands 5 2002 2018
 U.S. Virgin Islands 5 2002 2018

CONMEBOL countries

Venezuela (pictured before a 2008 qualifier) are the only CONMEBOL nation to never qualify for the World Cup

Only one of the 10 active FIFA and CONMEBOL members has never appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Venezuela† 12 1966 2014

OFC countries

10 out of the 11 active FIFA and OFC members haven't appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Fiji† 8 1982 2014
 Cook Islands 6 1998 2018
 Solomon Islands† 6 1994 2014
 Tahiti† 6 1994 2014
 Tonga 6 1998 2018
 Vanuatu† 6 1994 2014
 American Samoa 5 2002 2018
 Samoa† 5 1998 2014
 New Caledonia† 3 2006 2014
 Papua New Guinea† 3 1998 2014

UEFA countries

21 out of the 53 active FIFA and UEFA members haven't appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number First Last
 Luxembourg† 19 1934 2014
 Finland† 18 1938 2014
 Cyprus† 14 1962 2014
 Iceland† 12 1958 2014
 Albania† 11 1966 2014
 Malta† 11 1974 2014
 Estonia† 8 1934 2014
 Lithuania† 8 1934 2014
 Latvia† 7 1938 2014
 Faroe Islands† 6 1994 2014
 San Marino† 6 1994 2014
 Armenia† 5 1998 2014
 Azerbaijan† 5 1998 2014
 Belarus† 5 1998 2014
 Georgia† 5 1998 2014
 Kazakhstan† 5 1998 2014
 Liechtenstein† 5 1998 2014
 Macedonia† 5 1998 2014
 Moldova† 5 1998 2014
 Andorra† 4 2002 2014
 Montenegro† 2 2010 2014

Former countries

Three defunct national football teams took part in qualification but never appeared in the final tournament. This excludes teams whose record has been inherited by successor nations.

Country Qualifying attempts
Number Tournaments
 Saar 1 1954[1]
 South Vietnam 1 1974[2]
 South Yemen 1 1986[3]

Footnotes

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References

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See also



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