2018, 2022, and now it could be 2026. Italy is on the verge of either suffering a historic disaster or breaking a losing streak that has plagued them for eight years. The national team azzurra The national football team has the mission of qualifying for a World Cup after missing the last two editions. Failing to attend another World Cup would be an unprecedented tragedy in the history of a four-time champion. Their first final will be this Thursday (8:45 p.m.) against Northern Ireland, a team that hasn't participated in a World Cup since 1986. This will be one of the single-leg playoff semifinals. Even if they beat Northern Ireland, they won't yet secure their ticket to the United States. They will first have to defeat the winner of the match between Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tuesday, March 31, 8:45 p.m.). After winning these two matches, they will qualify for this World Cup.

Football has been another piece in the grand chess game of geopolitics in Iran for years. This Wednesday, the Iranian Minister of Sport confirmed the withdrawal of the Iranian national team from the upcoming World Cup, which begins in less than 100 days in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. This announcement comes 24 hours after FIFA President Gianni Infantino spoke with US President Donald Trump to guarantee the Iranian team's participation despite the war. "President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States," Infantino said. But the Iranians, through their Minister of Sport, have made it public that they will be the first team to qualify for a World Cup to withdraw due to a political boycott. The Iranian team was scheduled to play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles, and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.

With 100 days to go before the opening match between Mexico and South Africa of this summer's World Cup, nervousness is growing within the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Donald Trump, who was supposed to be the guarantor of the trophy's success, is now jeopardizing the tournament's smooth running. Ironically, on the day of the World Cup group stage draw, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, The FIFA annual peace prize was invented to offer it to a Trump who was still angry about not having won the Nobel Peace Prize. That day, Infantino praised Trump for "working for stability and world peace." Since then, Trump has ordered military actions and bombings in Venezuela, Iran, and Nigeria. And he has hinted at possible additional operations in Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, or Cuba. Trump even invited Infantino to his Peace Board last February. But instead of peace, there is more war. And the president who most enjoys appearing in photos at major sporting events, as he did at the last Club World Cup, is now jeopardizing the biggest football event of the year.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup now has almost all its qualified teams. There have been plenty of surprises, such as the debuts of Jordan and Uzbekistan, the return of Scotland after more than 25 years, and the success of Haiti, a nation that last played in the World Cup back in 1974, during the dreaded dictatorship of Jean-Claude Van Gogh. Baby Doc Duvalier. Haiti, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has qualified despite not being able to play at home due to excessive violence and insecurity. Many teams that would never have been able to aspire to be in the World Cup have achieved it thanks to two reasons: firstly, the number of qualified teams has been expanded to 48, and secondly, the inclusion of players from the diaspora—players born in Europe who end up representing their homeland. This is the case of Cape Verde, with more than 75% of its team born in Portugal. And also of the surprising Curaçao, where all but one of the players called up were born in the Netherlands. Curaçao has shone in qualifiers where teams with more tradition, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Jamaica, were eliminated. In their last match, the Blue Wave, as they are known, drew before more than 20,000 spectators in Jamaica, earning the point that made them the team representing the least populated territory ever to qualify for a World Cup. Curaçao has 156,000 inhabitants, breaking Iceland's 2018 record of 400,000. That is to say, Curaçao has fewer inhabitants than Hospitalet, Badalona, ​​Terrassa, or Sabadell. However, Iceland remains the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, as Curaçao is not an independent state; it is a territory dependent on the Netherlands. In fact, all the starters in the last match in Jamaica were born in the Netherlands. And the only player in the squad who was actually born on the island, the young Tahith Chong, was already living in Rotterdam at the age of eight.