Why Qatar qualified for World Cup, but not Italy originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
In the latest FIFA rankings, Italy is ranked as the No. 12 team in the world. Qatar is No. 56.
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But at this newly expanded 48-team World Cup in North America, Qatar is part of the tournament. They qualified. Italy is not. They missed their qualifying chance.
It’s not the only discrepancy like that, but with Qatar getting its tournament underway on Saturday against Switzerland, it stands out.
By pretty much every available metric, Italy is a far better team than Qatar.
Yet with the way World Cup qualifying works, Qatar is the team taking part in this event, not Italy.
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How Qatar qualified for the World Cup
Qatar takes part in the Asian Football Confederation qualification process, which has a number of rounds stacked upon each other.
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In the third round, Qatar finished fourth in the table after 10 games, and that was good enough to qualify for one more round — Iran and Uzbekistan qualified directly for the World Cup in that third round, while Qatar got the chance to keep playing.
Qatar then played a game apiece against the United Arab Emirates and Oman, beating the UAE and drawing with Oman, which was enough to finish first in that little three-team round robin and advance to the World Cup.
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Why isn’t Italy in the World Cup?
Italy failed to coffin from its UEFA qualifying group.
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They were second to Norway in the group, which sent Italy into the European playoff stages.
There, they lost on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina to clinch the fact that they would miss out on the tournament.
“It hurts,” Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said after that match. “Qualifying for the World Cup meant a lot to us, to our families, and to the whole country. It’s a really tough pill to swallow. The result was harsh. The lads gave their all, dug in deep, and genuinely impressed me. I’m sorry I couldn’t deliver.”
The world rankings suggest it’s not at all fair. Couldn’t Italy come to the tournament after finishing just behind Erling Haaland‘s Norway in their group?
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Instead, Qatar earned four points from two matches against UAE and Oman, ranked outside the top-65 in the world, to advance to the World Cup.
Sometimes, life isn’t fair.
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