FIFA Has Banned One Country From The 2026 World Cup

One country is officially banned from the 2026 World Cup despite numerous suspensions during the qualifying stages.

Several nations were either temporarily suspended from playing during the qualifiers, or pulled out of the process entirely.

During the African qualifying section, the football federation of Congo (FECOFOOT) was suspended by FIFA in February for a 'particularly serious situation' of undue influence.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) subsequently cancelled all of their remaining matches, and the two fixtures they were due to play in March, against Zambia and Tanzania, awarded as 3-0 victories to the opposition.

The ban would be lifted in May, and Congo will play two of their final three remaining qualifiers during the upcoming international break.

However, the African nation have already been eliminated from qualifying as they have lost all five of their matches so far.

In the same group of African qualifying, Eritrea withdrew before playing any matches, with reports claiming that their regime - a totalitarian dictatorship - was concerned that players would seek asylum in other countries while travelling to away matches.

They returned to international football in May for what was their first match in over five years - and are the lowest-ranked FIFA nation as a result - but will play no part in World Cup qualifying.

And in Asian qualifying, Pakistan were suspended after it was found that its revised constitution did not 'ensure truly fair and democratic elections'. The ban has since been lifted.

The only country that is officially banned from playing in the World Cup, therefore, remains Russia.

The nation was suspended by UEFA and FIFA following their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and have not yet been allowed to return to competitive football.

Russia have instead played friendly matches over the past three years against nations from across world football - barring those from Europe.

The only European exception is Belarus, who hosted a friendly against Russia in Minsk in June.

Belarus took on Russia in a friendly in Minsk (Image: Belarus-5)

Due to their involvement in Russia's war against Ukraine, Belarus has been suspended from competing in a number of sports, including tennis and athletics, while they also could not compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

UEFA banned Belarus from hosting competitive internationals, but they are still eligible to compete in World Cup qualifiers.

They are hosting all of their World Cup qualifying matches in Hungary starting from this month, with Scotland, Denmark and Greece drawn in their group.