Curaçao salvaged a 0-0 draw with Jamaica on Tuesday to become the smallest nation by population to qualify for a World Cup, Fox Sport reports.
Curacao will be joined by CONCACAF sides Panama and Haiti which also booked their spots.
Curaçao finished as the only undefeated nation in the tournament and finished atop of Group B with 12 points to advance to the World Cup for the first time in its history.
Curacao got the historic result it needed despite not having his coach Dick Advocaat. on the bench. The 78-year-old Advocaat missed the crucial match because he had to return to the Netherlands last weekend for family reasons.
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Advocaat was at the helm of the Netherlands national team for three stints and managed South Korea, Belgium and Russia before taking the job with Curacao.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics in Curaçao, the country has a population of 156,115 persons as of last January.
Iceland, with a population of just over 350,000 was the smallest country to reach the World Cup when it qualified for the tournament in Russia in 2018.
9 Comments
Hahahaha imagine cucurella sorry Curacao a country with the population that is not up to half of the population of ijebu ode has made it to the world cup….Hahaha
But my country Nigeria with almost 250 million people with players like osimhen who most people call the Drogba, yekini, Marcus alonso and David Luiz all in one….Hahahaha couldn’t make it to the world cup….SMH…
Sorry bro
Super eagles are super diva’s
Not strong but very fashionable
Lol
It’s serious. A country with less than 200k population making it to the world cup.
This is the level corruption had sinked Nigeria football.
I am waiting for NFF board to resign.
This NFF board must resign
Gusau and Pinnick recently got FIFA appointments. Ah, they will use that one as cover to attend world cup next year. Wickedness on steroids!
Our failure to qualify for two editions of the world cup is because of the following factors;
1. Incompetence, greed, corruption and lack of vision on the part of nff.
2. Failure to formulate and develop youth programs that will provide us with more talent.
3.Failure to develop the local league that will provide the national team with players that compete with their colleagues playing in European leagues.
4. Failure to engage a world class and experience coach on a long term contract to coach our national team .
5.failure to employ a competent technical director.
7. Failure to encourage growth of democratic institutions in football administration. When football is run by cabals whose primary objective is to protect their selfish interests you can’t make any impact in international competitions.
8. Lack of transparency in the management of fifa funds and funds from the federal government.
9. Lack of commitment on the part of some players.
10. Selection of some players based on their former antecedents and not on their current form.
Unless we address these issues we may not qualify for the next world cup.
If the current nff board fails to resgn the federal government should save our football by dissolving the board .fifa will work with us inorder to set up and interim body. Efcc, icpc and dss should investigate the activities of the board.
NFF ONIGBESE OUT!!!
Biko how FIFA rankings take dey work? Nigeria has just climbed 3 places to be 38th in the world after missing world cup!
No be setup be this later?
So we might actually climb higher if we win the AFCON next month? I doubt we can win though because the boys will be too depressed.