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Brazil is known as the most successful football country in the world. The national team, called Seleção, has won the FIFA World Cup five times. That’s more than any other country, one more than Germany and Italy, and two more than Argentina, who are the current champions.
From the old days of Pelé (a legend) to more recent stars like Ronaldo and Neymar, Brazil has always had some of the best football players in the world.
They have not only ruled South American football but have also impressed fans across the globe. Even in the years when they didn’t win, people still loved watching them play because of their exciting and skilful style.
So now, it’s very surprising and even worrying to see that Brazil is only in 5th place in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, especially after the September matches.
Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big problem because the 2026 World Cup will include more teams than before. South America now gets six direct spots in the tournament, plus one more chance through a playoff with teams from other continents. So Brazil still has a good shot at making it.
The fact that people are even talking about the possibility of Brazil not making it to the World Cup is a big deal. It shows that something’s not right. Brazil usually qualifies easily, so seeing them struggle like this is strange and shocking.
That’s why many fans and experts are looking back at Brazil’s past performance in qualifiers to understand how rare and historic it would be if Brazil actually missed the 2026 World Cup.
Has Brazil ever failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup?
Since the tournament began in 1930, Brazil has played in every single World Cup, all 22 of them, right up to 2022. No other country has done that.
Brazil is actually the only nation in the world to take part in all 22 World Cups. For comparison, Germany has played in 20 World Cups and Argentina, Italy, and Mexico have each played in 18.
Brazil has also hosted the World Cup twice, once in 1950 and again in 2014, and since they were the host country, they automatically got to play in those two tournaments without needing to qualify.
In the very early years of the World Cup, specifically the first three tournaments, teams were invited to join, so Brazil didn’t have to qualify for those either.
In 1962, 1966, and 1998, Brazil also qualified automatically because they were the defending champions, which was the rule back then.
For all the other 14 World Cups, Brazil had to qualify by playing other teams in their continent (South America, or CONMEBOL).
And guess what?
Not only did they always qualify, but they finished first in the group almost every time; only once did they not come in first.
Brazil CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying record
Before 1998, Brazil didn’t need to qualify for the World Cup that year because they were the defending champions. But in earlier years, the qualification process in South America (CONMEBOL) was also very different. The 10 teams in the region were split into two groups, so each team only had to play a few matches, a maximum of 8, and sometimes even less, especially in older years when there were fewer countries.
During that older system, Brazil almost never lost a game. In fact, they lost only one qualifying match, and that was way back in 1993, when Bolivia beat them 2-0 in La Paz, a city in the mountains where the high altitude makes it hard to play.
Later, CONMEBOL changed the format. Now, every country in South America plays every other country twice, one game at home and one away. This means each team has to play 18 matches to qualify. Because of this longer format, there are more chances for Brazil to lose or drop points. Also, other teams have gotten stronger, making it harder for Brazil to dominate the way they used to.
Even with those changes, Brazil still performed really well. The only time they didn’t finish first in qualifying (before now) was in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup, when they finished third. Other than that, they never lost more than two games in a qualifying round, until now, during the current campaign for the 2026 World Cup, where things have been more difficult than ever before.
| World Cup cycle |
Qualifying matches |
W-D-L | GF-GA | Finish |
| 1954 | 4 | 4-0-0 | 8-1 | 1st, Group 11 |
| 1958 | 2 | 1-1-0 | 2-1 | 1st, Group 1 |
| 1970 | 6 | 6-0-0 | 23-2 | 1st, Group 2 |
| 1978 | 6 | 4-2-0 | 17-1 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1982 | 4 | 4-0-0 | 11-2 | 1st, Group 1 |
| 1986 | 4 | 2-2-0 | 6-2 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1990 | 4 | 3-1-0 | 13-1 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1994 | 8 | 5-2-1 | 20-4 | 1st, Group B |
| 2002 | 18 | 9-3-6 | 31-17 | 3rd |
| 2006 | 18 | 9-7-2 | 35-17 | 1st |
| 2010 | 18 | 9-7-2 | 33-11 | 1st |
| 2018 | 18 | 12-5-1 | 41-11 | 1st |
| 2022 | 17 | 14-3-0 | 40-5 | 1st |
| 2026* | 15 | 6-4-5 | 20-16 | 4th |