Eight of the 10 most populous countries are not in the World Cup

China’s situation is perhaps more confusing. In recent years it has become one of the most successful countries in Olympic history. However, his ventures into men’s football did not bear similar fruit.

“There is no reason [in theory] Beijing-based Chinese football expert Mark Dreyer believes why China cannot produce world-class footballers.

“The main problem is that in China everything is controlled by the state and everything is top-down. You need the people who play football to make decisions about football, but there is a lot of political interference.”

China has not returned to the World Cup since 2002, despite heavy investment in the game since the 2010s; This includes the professional league’s influx of various high-profile names from South American and European football in a bid to raise the standard of play.

Like China, Indonesia has tasted World Cup action once before; In 1938, it contested as the Dutch East Indies, then a colony of the Netherlands.

The Southeast Asian side, on the other hand, performed well in 2026 and advanced to the final qualifying round.

However, this performance is perhaps better explained by the decision to recruit European players with Indonesian heritage rather than relying on domestic talent.

“There were sometimes eight or nine European-born players in the Indonesian starting 11,” says Jerome Wirawan, News Editor for the BBC’s Indonesian service.

Pakistan and Bangladesh exited the Asian qualifiers without a win in six matches in the group stage. Pakistan was also banned from international football three times by Fifa between 2017 and 2025 due to political infighting in the governing body.