Today is 48-days until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks-off in Mexico City and as there's 48 teams participating, I thought I'd countdown with a daily team guide based on how likely they are to win tournament.

The order isn't necessarily in the order I would rank them (I'd have Norway higher) but I've tried to be somewhat objective by considering World Rankings, current form, historic results etc.

48. Haiti

Group C

CONCACAF (6/6)

World Ranking: 83

Best Result: Group Stage (1974)

Fixtures:

Scotland (14th June, 2AM)

Brazil (20th June, 1:30AM)

Morocco (24th June, 11PM)

Haiti have qualified for their second ever World Cup and become the first Caribbean nation to reach multiple finals. They've been rewarded with a tough-looking Group C where their opening game against Scotland looks vital. Someone has to come last and the deciding factor between them and the team in 47th for me was that I found the other side's qualification campaign more impressive (on paper). Of course, Haiti's qualification is the most impressive of anyone seeming that they've been unable to play at home due to gang violence for over 5-years.

The Manager: Sébastien Migné

Hailing from France, Migné represented Leyton Orient in his playing career but his managerial career has a more distinctive African flavour having coached DR Congo Under 20s, Congo, Kenya and Equatorial Guinea as well as being the assistant for Cameroon. He's been at Haiti now for two years and has led them to a World Cup despite never setting foot in the country.

Key Player: Wilson Isidor (Sunderland)

Haiti aren't blessed with lots of talent at the top level of European football but they've worked wonders to convince Sunderland striker Isidor to change allegiance and commit to Haiti after representing France at under 17, 18, 19 and 20 level. He started his Premier League career on fire but has recently found himself benched by Brian Brobbey. He did find the back of the net in their last game, a 4-3 defeat by Aston Villa on Sunday and he will need to keep his shooting boots on this summer if Haiti are to do well.

Why they're actually going to win it: It's a home confederation tournament for them? That's all I've got for this one 🤷

Looking forward to following this! I think it's great to see Haiti in the World Cup - there hasn't been a Caribbean team make it in 20 years, and we've got two this time! - but they do have a tough group (and I fear the other Caribbean country has a similarly sticky situation). I will enjoy collecting Panini stickers with Haitian flags on though

Great idea for a thread this is!

Yeh great idea Lewis, also look forward to the World Soccer players guide for these tournaments!

What a fantastic idea, @LewisGT, really looking forward to following this.

The other thing about Haiti is that it's quite likely they'll be one of a number of teams where none of the squad play football in the country they're representing - in 2022 it was only Senegal that were in that situation but with the expansion to 48 teams I imagine it'll be the case for quite a few more. At least some of the players were actually born in Haiti, unlike the country which I'm guessing will appear next...

47. Curaçao

Group E

CONCACAF (5/6)

World Ranking: 82

Best Result: n/a

Fixtures:

Germany (14th June, 6PM)

Ecuador (21st June, 1AM)

Ivory Coast (25th June, 9PM)

Curaçao became the smallest populated nation to ever qualify for the World Cup with their 185,000 residents being nearly half of Iceland's 350,000. They've managed this because they are a team that relies on their diaspora more than most. A lot of their squad are Dutch born but show great pride in representing their national team. Curaçao only became Curaçao in 2011 having been part of Netherlands Antilles from 1958-2010. They are only the sixth non-sovereign national team to qualify for the World Cup following the four teams from the UK and the Dutch East Indies in 1938. They had an unbeaten qualifying campaign that included some hard-thought results against Steve McClaren's Jamaica, as well as being one place ahead of Haiti in the World Rankings which is why they've landed higher here.

The Manager: Fred Rutten

It was the legendary Dick Advocat that qualified them for the tournament but he unfortunately had to step down in February due to the ill-health of his daughter. Stepping up to replace him is another Dutch manager in Fred Rutten. As a player, he spent his career with FC Twente before having two spells as their manager. His one solitary appearance for the Netherlands in 1988 is his only experience in international football before taking this job.

Key Player: Tahith Chong (Sheffield United)

I should probably say their captain and record-appearance maker, the ex-Premier League star Leandro Bacuna. And while he's going to be solid and dependable, he is 34 now and I think the wildcard in their side is actually their only home-born player, Tahith Chong. Once thought to be the next big thing at United, he made 16 senior appearances for the club and looked really good in his second spell in the Premier League with Luton a few years ago. He's a really talented player and if Curaçao are to shock the world, they're going to need a special spark and he's the most likely to provide it.

Why they're actually going to win it: Again, it's a home confederation tournament for them and the excitement of the first tournament will be sky-high. But they also have someone to rally around and have the 'do it for Advocat' mentality.

Ah I must have missed Tahith Chong in my very quick scroll through! As with Haiti, great to see them qualify, but I do fear for them.

Fear for both these sides but interesting they both have players we know!

46. Iraq

Group I

AFC (9/9)

World Ranking: 57

Best Result: Group Stage (1986)

Fixtures:

Norway (16th June, 11PM)

France (22nd June, 10PM)

Senegal (26th June, 8PM)

The final side to book their spot for this summer, Iraq took the long route to the tournament, needing 107th minute winner to beat United Arab Emirates in the fifth round of Asian qualification before seeing off Bolivia in the intercontinental Play-Off in March. On paper, they are probably better than the being the 46th ranked team at this tournament but their place in the group of death has made their progression look out of reach. Their only previous World Cup was in Mexico where they lost all three group games. A repeat of that is looking likely.

The Manager: Graham Arnold

Arnold took his home nation Australia to the last World Cup as underdogs and led the team to the last 16 before being knocked out by eventual champions Argentina. This equalled their best ever run and Arnold signed a new contract for this World Cup campaign. However, a poor start to qualifying that saw them lose to Bahrain and draw with Indonesia saw him hand in his resignation. He took over Iraq in May 2025 and a win against already-qualified Jordan in his second game saw them book a spot in Round 4 of Asian qualifying where a win versus Indonesia and a draw with Saudi Arabia was not enough to book them direct qualification due to goals scored.

Key Player: Aymen Hussain (Al-Karma)

Now playing back in his home country in a move which was the record for an Iraq league transfer, Hussain made his debut for his national side in 2015 and has since scored 33 goals, including the winner against Bolivia that sent them to this tournament. His club career has taken him all across Asia (with a trip to Morocco too) and he has been prolific nearly everywhere he’s went. It’s also worth mentioning Manchester-born Zidane Iqbal who is still only 22 and played Champions League football at Manchester United.

Why they're actually going to win it: If they get through that group, they will have had some brilliant results against top sides which will send confidence and momentum to sky-high levels.

In my opinion, Qatar are worse than Iraq. I think Iraq might grind out a point or two, I don't expect anything from the 2022 hosts.

The country as a whole has been through a lot over the past 25 years so fair play to see them rewarded with a World Cup to celebrate!

I think Haiti, Curacao and Iraq will all be knocked out at the group stage with 3 defeats from 3. Just to score a goal will be a nice achievement, a bit like how Panama celebrated scoring against England at the 2018 World Cup even though they were being thrashed at that moment in the game.

You hope for Haiti, Curacao and Iraq that they don't get an unwanted World Cup record for the biggest win against them at the World Cup. But I'm sure that their fans will be loving every single minute of it.

I think that England blowout over Panama was more about how good England was than how bad Panama was, though to be fair Panama come to this World Cup decidedly stronger. They are no worse now than Costa Rica has ever been at a World Cup and look what Costa Rica did in 2014.

Iraq is doomed only by the group of death they've been put into, I'd rank them well above the bottom tier, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and especially Qatar from Asia. Jordan barely, because I think they might surprise someone, probably with a couple nice goals.

Iraq will likely end with 0 points, but I wouldn't be surprised if they hang with Norway for an hour before Haaland strikes and Norway comes away with 2-0 result or something. They might get discouraged and have some bad results against France and Senegal after that, but I think they are going to be one of those pains that build a wall try to play for 0-0.

For me, the bottom three are Curacao, Qatar, and New Zealand, but I think Ghana isn't far behind that and Bosnia is in my opinion the weakest European side here but that's up for debate where to actually rank them. Haiti is someone around here too, but might grab a point from Scotland, we'll see. I don't think they will be an absolute walk over. Alot of this going off past results though and how I think they will translate, but when the lights get too big for some of these nations, it might explode in their face or they might prove a point. It's always hard to read. I'm just going strictly off paper here.

This will be fun to follow along to insert my opinion against this ranking which is a fair ranking; nothing at all against what you've come up with and appreciate it.

Edited Monday at 15:292 days by DJHazey

One thing to point out is these conditions will be far hotter and more humid than many Asian and European nations are used to, so the edge goes to CONCACAF, South America, and Central Africa when it comes to that. We (the Americas) are used to this climate and it will be a big factor that cannot be overlooked.

Edited Monday at 15:322 days by DJHazey

3 hours ago, DJHazey said:

Iraq is doomed only by the group of death they've been put into, I'd rank them well above the bottom tier, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and especially Qatar from Asia. Jordan barely, because I think they might surprise someone, probably with a couple nice goals.

This will be fun to follow along to insert my opinion against this ranking which is a fair ranking; nothing at all against what you've come up with and appreciate it.

Of course. It's interesting to hear what everyone else thinks.

Based on what you've said, I don't think you're going to agree with today's post 🤣

45. Uzbekistan

Group K

AFC (8/9)

World Ranking: 50

Best Result: N/A

Fixtures:

Colombia (18th June, 3AM)

Portugal (23rd June, 6PM)

DR Congo (28th June, 12:30AM)

They’ve come close many a time before but Uzbekistan took advantage of the extended World Cup to book their place at the finals for the first time. They did it early too, finishing above UAE and Qatar to obtain an automatic spot at the first round where they could. They were praised for their attacking tactics during qualification and if I was doing this list last year, they would have been higher. The main reason I’ve dropped them this low is because of their managerial appointment of...

The Manager: Fabio Cannavaro

Multiple Serie A and La Liga titles. World Cup winner. Ballon D’or winning centre-back! Cannavaro certainly has some pedigree. However, you might notice that all of those honours were at playing level. As a manager, he hasn’t had the same level of success. His times in China were ok but he also has, more recently, a relegation from Serie B with Benevento and a disastrous spell at Dinamo Zagreb on his CV. But the main reason that I think this could spell disaster is the complete 180 in style between him and the previous manager. As one of the best ever defenders, Cannavaro favours the defensive approach while Uzbekistan have been all-about-attack in recent years. We rarely see teams adapt this quick. Timur Kapadze guided them to qualification but was controversially let go last October.

Key Player: Abdukodir Khusanov (Manchester City)

An easy pick, especially with their new defensive approach. Khusanov is the first Uzbek player to play in both Ligue 1 as well as the Premier League. After a shaky start at Man City, he has recently become one of the first names on the team-sheet and has been a catalyst in their upturn in form that has made them look title-favourites. Blessed with great pace for a CB, he is looking very composed and will need to be at his best to stop some potent attacking sides in Portugal and Colombia.

Why they're actually going to win it: Cannavaro has done it all before (at playing level) and will be keen to prove the doubters (me) wrong. He certainly has a better side than this ranking would suggest, if he can.

I definitely would not put Uzbekistan this low. The only reason you could is because they've never been here when other nations I'd rank lower have. Granted I think they don't have much of a chance against Portugal or Colombia, who I have both in my Top 10, but they will be more than competitive against Congo DR. You never know, that match could get you a good enough for third place R32 spot.

I'll do my ranking along with you:

48) Curacao

47) Qatar

46) New Zealand

45) Haiti

Edited Monday at 18:541 day by DJHazey