Which teams are already out of the World Cup 2026? | OneFootball

Little-known FIFA rule change has led to early exits being confirmed for several nations

The World Cup is rapidly approaching the business end of the group stage, with a number of teams already seeing their hopes of progress dashed.

An increase from 32 to 48 nations for this summer’s tournament in North America has led to the addition of 24 more games during the first phase, with the top two from each of the 12 four-team groups advancing through to the newly-created round of 32, along with the best eight third-place finishers.

A less well-known but still significant change for this World Cup has been FIFA deciding to use head-to-head records above goal difference as the principal tiebreaker during the group stage.

That means that a number of teams who would previously have gone into the last round of group fixtures still with a slim chance of reaching the knockout rounds now know that they mathematically have no shot.

Here is a list of all the nations that are already definitely out of the 2026 World Cup.

Exits confirmed: Neither Tunisia, Turkey nor Haiti will be going any further at the 2026 World Cup

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Which teams are out of World Cup 2026?

The first team whose elimination from the 2026 World Cup was officially confirmed was Group C minnows Haiti, who, appearing on the global stage for only the second time and first since 1974, followed a spirited 1-0 loss to Scotland on opening weekend with a 3-1 defeat by Brazil in Philadelphia on Saturday.

They were quickly followed somewhat surprisingly by Turkey, who were brushed aside 2-0 by Australia in Group D before then falling to a Paraguay team who had been thrashed by the USA, going down 1-0 in San Francisco after Matias Galarza’s second-minute goal.

That is despite Paraguay playing a whole half with 10 men after former Newcastle forward Miguel Almiron became the first player to be sent off for covering his mouth while talking to an opponent during a confrontation as part of FIFA’s slew of new rules for this World Cup.

Turkey - quarter-finalists at Euro 2024 but playing at the World Cup for the first time since finishing third in 2002 - registered an incredible 62 shots across their first two matches without scoring, with their shock early exit leading to emotional apologies from the likes of Real Madrid star Arda Guler and throwing Vincenzo Montella’s future as head coach into doubt.

Also out of the tournament are Tunisia, whose 5-1 thrashing by Sweden in their Group F opener led to the sacking of head coach Sabri Lamouchi and the appointment of Herve Renard.

However, that change made no short-term impact as they were then drubbed 4-0 by Japan in Monterrey. Tunisia have exited at the group stage on all seven of their World Cup appearances so far, including the last three tournaments in a row.