With little over a month to go for FIFA World Cup to kick off in Qatar, fans seem to be up for an unexpectedly exciting time with four-time World Cup winners and European champions Italy not qualifying for the finals.
Italy, however, is not the only popular team that has missed out on a spot. Here are the eight teams that will not be participating in FIFA World Cup 2022.
Italy
The country missed out on securing a spot after a 92nd-minute loss to North Macedonia in their playoff semifinal in March. In the five matches that followed, they won only once and were held to four draws. A second-place finish took them to the playoffs where they failed to score and found themselves not qualifying for the World Cup the second consecutive time, Al Jazeera reported.
Russia
Russia was politically expelled from the FIFA World Cup in Qatar following its invasion of Ukraine. The team was one of the favourites to qualify from Europe and had reached the quarter-finals. Russia filed an appeal against the expulsion in the Court of Arbitration of Sport but later withdrew it.
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Sweden The country has been part of 12 of the 21 world cups held so far. Their journey to Qatar came to an abrupt end when they lost three of their six matches in the second leg of qualifiers in 2021 and ranked second in their group behind Spain lost to Poland in the playoffs.
Colombia
Colombia were one of the favourites to secure a spot at FIFA World Cup 2022 with a former World Cup Golden Boot winner, James Rodriguez, and impressive performances at the last two editions of the tournament, but they finished sixth in the qualifiers, a point behind Peru who earned the playoff spot after the top four teams qualified.
Chile
Chile has been a part of the world cups since the first edition in 1930. They even hosted the tournament in 1962 and finished third. But, they won only one of their last four qualification matches for Qatar 2022. Later, Chile sought to have Ecuador disqualified by arguing that Ecuador’s Byron Castillo was Colombian and hence ineligible to represent Ecuador, but FIFA ruled otherwise.
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Nigeria
Having made its debut at the World Cup in 1994, Nigeria became an instant hit with the fans because of their attacking style of playing and entertaining goal celebrations. This year, however, Nigeria’s dreams of playing in front of expat Nigerian population in Qatar were dashed when they drew both their playoff legs against Ghana. But, the latter qualified for FIFA World Cup 2022 on the basis of an away goal.
Egypt With a FIFA World Cup taking place in the Middle East, a large expat population in Qatar and Mohamed Salah as the captain, Egypt was a favourite. But when Salah and two others missed their penalty as Egypt drew against Senegal in the playoff, they missed their shot at the world cup.
Algeria
Algeria was on the verge of making it to the finals after scoring a late extra-time winner over Cameroon in their playoff tie. But Cameroon's Karl Toko Ekambi scored seconds before the final whistle and fixed a slot for his country at the FIFA World Cup. It was one of the most dramatic finishes of the qualifiers.
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