Who was the worst team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
Everyone wants to know who the best team will be at the World Cup, but let’s ask the opposite question: Who was the worst?
We are now done with the group stage, and that means we have our first 16 eliminated teams from the competition.
Some of them waited until the final seconds of the group stage to know they were cut, while others have known for over a week that their time at the tournament was on borrowed time.
Who was the absolute worst, though? Let’s take a deeper dive to find out who is stuck at the very bottom.
More news: Qatar’s World Cup Group Stage Report Card: The Worst Team?
More news: Tunisia’s World Cup Group Stage Report Card: Ugly From Start to Finish
First off, which eliminated teams can we say for sure aren’t the worst?
South Korea, Scotland, and Turkey all won games. While you can say Scotland didn’t deserve the win over Haiti or Turkey beat a USA B-team, they still won a game. That takes them out of the debate for the worst.
Iran, three draws, was one missed header by Austria on the last play of the last group stage game against Algeria from making it to the Round of 32, so it can’t be them.
Speaking of Haiti, they put up a good fight for such a small nation, and the same can be said for Curaçao.
Uruguay went out ugly and might have been the most embarrassing team, but I wouldn’t say they were the weakest.
In the end, it comes down to a hobbled three horse race between Iraq, Tunisia, and Qatar.
Iraq got smashed by France, Norway. and Senegal, but to be honest, even some good teams would get dominated by those three power nations. And compared to Qatar and Tunisia, Iraq didn’t humiliate themselves that bad on the global stage.
Qatar stole a point against Switzerland but then had the ugliest match of the World Cup against Canada, where they severely injured one of their opponent’s best players out of frustration and got crushed 6-0 in a match that made them look like they didn’t belong anywhere near a World Cup field.
At most tournaments, Qatar would take the award for worst team.
This World Cup isn’t a normal tournament, though, and the reason is because of Tunisia.
They fired their manager after losing their first match. Then got beat even easier in their second game. And by the time they flopped into their final match against Netherlands, it was like watching a shark showing mercy towards a fish that couldn’t swim any longer.
Congratulations, Tunisia, you did it. The worst team of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Ranking the Eliminated World Cup Teams
- Iran (The Best)
- Turkey
- Scotland
- South Korea
- Curaçao
- New Zealand
- Uruguay
- Saudi Arabia
- Panama
- Jordan
- Uzbekistan
- Haiti
- Czechia
- Iraq
- Qatar
- Tunisia (The Worst)
