The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature something the tournament hasn’t seen in a while: genuine newcomers. Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan have all qualified for the first time in their respective footballing histories, joining an expanded 48-team field that kicks off on June 11, 2026, across venues in Canada, Mexico, and the US.
The long road to qualification
Jordan’s qualification caps a stretch of sustained momentum. The team finished as runner-up at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, a result that signaled they were no longer a regional afterthought. Their 2025 qualifying campaign carried that energy forward, converting years of near-misses into something concrete.
Uzbekistan’s journey is arguably the most patient of the four. The country joined FIFA back in 1994 and has been knocking on the World Cup door through multiple qualifying cycles since. Over three decades of attempts finally paid off.
Cape Verde, a volcanic archipelago nation off the west coast of Africa with a population well under a million, represents one of the smallest countries ever to qualify.
