The World Cup, the most known football competition in history, will return in 2026. The event, held in the United States, promises to be a spectacle, with many hoping that the football matches the excellence demonstrated in Qatar in 2022.
Many countries have been tipped to triumph on the world’s greatest stage, with Spain being a particularly strong contender. This might all change if Spain decides to skip the 2026 World Cup.
The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, or PSOE, the current governing political party of the Spanish national team, has not ruled out boycotting the 2018 World Cup if Israel, which has a decent chance of at least reaching the play-offs, qualifies.
With this being a new topic of discussion, it begs the question: has any nation ever boycotted the World Cup? According to SPORTbible, Spain would not be the first country to turn down a spot in the famous tournament.
The nine nations will boycott the World Cup.
The first team to boycott the World Cup was also the tournament’s inaugural winner. Uruguay elected not to travel to Italy to defend their title in 1934, citing a low number of European nations participated in the 1930 edition.
That same year, the Home Nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (which at the time featured players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) all elected to skip the World Cup in favor of their own Home Championship, which they believed was of a higher caliber.
Uruguay’s boycotts continued until 1938, when Argentina, who faced Uruguay in the 1930 final, elected not to participate in response to the decision to hold the event in Europe rather than South America.
It took more than a decade before another team voluntarily declined to compete in the World Cup. India had automatically taken the one qualifying slot from the Asian continent when the other three nations chose not to compete, but they chose not to participate since they believed the event was not important enough. According to reports, the country was denied participation because they were playing barefoot at the time. Since declining the opportunity to compete, India has never qualified for a World Cup.
Turkey refused to compete in the 1950 World Cup, which was held in Brazil, citing the high cost of sending their team to South America.
The final country to choose not to participate in a World Cup, at the time of writing, was the Soviet Union in 1974, possibly the most notable case.
A country brought to prominence by the renowned Lev Yashin, they met Chile in a World Cup qualifier, but their return leg in South America was planned soon after General Pinochet’s brutal coup. Chile only scored once in an empty net before the referee blew for full-time because they refused to field a team for the match.
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