Maybe, Italy’s coach Gennaro Gattuso knew his team would not qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup last year itself. In a rant last December that had been fished up again and circulated as a reflection of a flawed system he bemoaned the diversely unequal routes teams from different continents take to reach the World Cup. “If we look at South America, where six out of 10 teams go directly to the World Cup and the seventh heads into a play-off with a team from Oceania,” he pointed out. “That does give you regrets and a certain sadness.” In a roundabout way, he was implying that the tournament is being over-run by underdogs through easy paths while statistically-better teams are sitting out.
There were factual inaccuracies. Like the seventh-placed team in CONMEBOL does not necessarily play a team from Oceania. In the end, the Latin America country lost to Iraq, from the Asian confederation. He lamented the extra berths to African countries. “In 1990 and 1994, there were two African teams. In my day, the best [group] runners-up went straight to the World Cup, now the rules have changed,” Gattuso said. Now there are nine, and it is a problem for Gattuso.
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Not that the FIFA’s qualification system is spotless, but there is simply no better alternative to make the tournament a truly global event, lest it be a glorified Euro. The complexity arises from the simple reality that all continents don’t have the same number of football-playing nations. UEFA has the maximum (55) and CONMEBOL has the fewest. Hence, Latin America simply doesn’t have the numbers to spread into several groups. In the same manner Europe can’t afford a 55-team group shuttling up and down the continent for home and away fixtures. It crams the calendar. The qualifying systems of Africa (53)and Asia (46) are similar to UEFA’s because of the sheer number of competing nations.
Whereas it is true that the percentage of slots for European teams have been reduced, from 54 percent in the 1990s, to 33.33 percent in 2026, as he argued, more countries have sprouted in the continent. In 1990, Europe had only 35 sovereign states, 36 years later, there are 44. In case you are wondering why there are more UEFA members than European countries, it is because of what the UEFA calls the “transcontinental location” of countries such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. Gattuso did not weigh in the geopolitical alterations of the continent.
Besides, the disparity between teams is minuscule. Seven of the top 10 teams in the world are from Europe. Half of the top 50 comprise teams from the continent. It’s just that rest of Europe got stronger and Italy declined steeply. It is still stronger than many other countries that have qualified for the tournament, but the World Cup is not only about the strongest teams on paper, or those with the richest pedigree, but those that reflect the diverse footballing cultures of the world. New Zealand is placed 85th, but it would have been injudicious to have only one team from the region in a fattened World Cup.
A more relevant cause for perceived injustice is the allotment of seats to Asia. It has only four of its 46 participating nations (8.70%) in the top 50, yet it manages eight automatic places (19.05%). Or the unrealistic fortune bestowed on Sweden. They finished last in their qualifying group with two points, but waltzed into the playoff thanks to them winning their group In Nations League’s Group C. As the toppers of Groups A and B had already qualified, Sweden got a lucky shot at redemption. More fortune winked, as their opponent in the playoff semifinal was Ukraine, which meant they played at a neutral venue (Valencia in Spain). The final was played at home and they scraped past Poland.
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The tournament is richer for following the spots-allocation system rather than choosing teams purely on rankings. Like the top 48. It would have been poorer for narratives and a slice of the world cheering from the stands. The heartwarming tales of Cape Verde and Curacao (the smallest country in terms of population) to have qualified for the spectacle) would not have spun; the poignant stories of Iraqi footballers would have wetted the viewers eyes. Five of the 48 have never experienced a World Cup; four have not featured in the tournament this century. Fundamentally, it is a celebration of cultures, encapsulating elemental emotions, uniting the world in their passion for the game and blurring man-made divides. It’s a course correction too, as for decades European countries dominated representation. A more equitable distribution is required to help develop the game in the rest of the world.
Besides, it is myopic to suggest that some of the teams did not deserve. For instance, Cape Verde aside, Africa’s qualifiers are all well-established on the world stage. Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. As are Latin America’s six. Five of Concacaf’s six nations are in the top 50. So Gattuso’s reflections were misinformed, or just that emotions obscured his power to rationalise. The verbal tackles of the great midfield enforcer was for once reckless.
