List of national teams with no FIFA World Cup appearances

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). 135 of the 211 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 were 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 have not appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country	Qualifying attempts
Country	Number	First	Last
Syria^†	13	1950	2014
Hong Kong	12	1974	2018
Malaysia	12	1974	2018
Chinese Taipei	11	1978	2018
Singapore	11	1978	2018
Thailand^†	11	1974	2014
Bahrain	10	1978	2018
Qatar^†	10	1978	2014
Bangladesh	9	1986	2018
Jordan	9	1986	2018
Macau	9	1982	2018
Yemen^{[upper-alpha 1]}	9	1986	2018
India	8	1986	2018
Oman	8	1990	2018
Pakistan	8	1990	2018
Vietnam^{[upper-alpha 2]}	8	1974	2018
Lebanon	7	1994	2018
Nepal	7	1986	2018
Sri Lanka	7	1994	2018
Kyrgyzstan	6	1998	2018
Maldives	6	1998	2018
Tajikistan	6	1998	2018
Turkmenistan	6	1998	2018
Cambodia	5	1998	2018
Mongolia	5	2002	2018
Palestine	5	2002	2018
Uzbekistan^†	5	1998	2014
Afghanistan	4	2006	2018
Laos	4	2002	2018
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 have not appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country	Qualifying attempts
Country	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 have not appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country	Qualifying attempts
Country	Number	First	Last
Curaçao^{[upper-alpha 3]}	16	1958	2018
Guatemala	15	1958	2018
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
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	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
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
Country	Number	First	Last
Venezuela^†	12	1966	2014

OFC countries

10 out of the 11 active FIFA and OFC members have not appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country	Qualifying attempts
Country	Number	First	Last
Fiji^†	8	1982	2014
Vanuatu	7	1994	2018
Cook Islands	6	1998	2018
Samoa	6	1998	2018
Solomon Islands^†	6	1994	2014
Tahiti^†	6	1994	2014
Tonga	6	1998	2018
American Samoa	5	2002	2018
New Caledonia^†	3	2006	2014
Papua New Guinea^†	3	1998	2014

UEFA countries

23 out of the 55 active FIFA and UEFA members have not appeared in the FIFA World Cup final tournament.

Country	Qualifying attempts
Country	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
Gibraltar^†	0	—	—
Kosovo^†	0	—	—

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
Country	Number	Tournaments
Saar	1	1954^[1]
South Yemen	1	1986^[2]

Footnotes

↑ Figures include North Yemen records.
↑ Figures include South Vietnam records.
↑ Figures include Netherlands Antilles records.

References

↑ Stokkermans, Karel; Jarreta, Sergio Henrique (12 June 2009). "World Cup 1954 Qualifying". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
↑ Stokkermans, Karel; Jarreta, Sergio Henrique (3 January 2000). "World Cup 1986 Qualifying". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 11 September 2014.

FIFA World Cup

Tournaments	Uruguay 1930 Italy 1934 France 1938 Brazil 1950 Switzerland 1954 Sweden 1958 Chile 1962 England 1966 Mexico 1970 West Germany 1974 Argentina 1978 Spain 1982 Mexico 1986 Italy 1990 United States 1994 France 1998 South Korea/Japan 2002 Germany 2006 South Africa 2010 Brazil 2014 Russia 2018 Qatar 2022 2026

Qualification	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

Finals	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Squads	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Seedings	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

Broadcasters	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

Bids	2014 2018 and 2022 2026 2030

Records and statistics	All-time table Goalscorers top goalscorers finals goalscorers hat-tricks own goals Penalty shoot-outs Player appearances Red cards Referees Team appearances Teams with no appearances

Miscellaneous	Awards Balls Economics Final draw History Hosts Mascots Official films Official songs Organisers Trophy Video games

Notes: There was no qualification for the 1930 World Cup as places were given by invitation only. In 1950, there was no final; the article is about the decisive match of the final group stage.

Countries at the FIFA World Cup

Team appearances Teams with no appearances All-time table

AFC	Australia² China Indonesia¹ Iran Iraq Japan Kuwait North Korea Saudi Arabia South Korea United Arab Emirates

CAF	Algeria Angola Cameroon DR Congo¹ Egypt Ghana Ivory Coast Morocco Nigeria Senegal South Africa Togo Tunisia

CONCACAF	Canada Costa Rica Cuba El Salvador Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Trinidad and Tobago United States

CONMEBOL	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay

OFC	New Zealand

UEFA	Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic¹ Denmark East Germany³ England France Germany¹ Greece Hungary Israel² Italy Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia¹ Scotland Serbia¹ Slovakia¹ Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

¹ Considered a successor team by FIFA, or have competed under another name(s). ² Have been member of multiple confederations. ³ Team and national federation no longer exist.

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