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17 Countries Banned From FIFA World Cups
The FIFA World Cup is the pinnacle of international football, and nations aspire to compete in it.
However, not every country gets the opportunity to participate—not solely due to stringent qualification requirements, but also because of FIFA bans.
Over the years, FIFA has prohibited several countries from the tournament. Recently, Pakistan and Congo were added to the list alongside Russia, preventing them from competing in the 2026 World Cup.
While Russia has been banned since 2022, this is not the first instance of such action by FIFA. Since 1950, 17 countries have faced bans from the World Cup.
Germany & Japan (1950): Following World War II, both nations were banned from the 1950 World Cup due to their wartime actions.
South Africa (1970–1990): Banned due to its apartheid policies, South Africa was expelled from FIFA in 1976 and missed five World Cups. The ban was lifted in 1991 as apartheid came to an end.
Mexico (1990): Penalised for fielding overage players in a youth tournament, Mexico was barred from all FIFA competitions for two years, missing the 1990 World Cup.
**Chile (1994):** Banned after goalkeeper Roberto Rojas faked an injury in a 1989 match against Brazil. He received a lifetime ban, which was later lifted in 2001.
**Myanmar (2006):** Barred from qualifying after withdrawing from a 2002 qualifier against Iran.
**Iraq (2008):** Temporarily banned after dissolving its Olympic committee and sports federations.
**Nigeria (2014):** Suspended due to government interference in its football federation.
**Kuwait (2015):** Barred for political interference, a recurring issue within their football administration.
**Indonesia (2015):** Suspended for the same reasons as Kuwait.
**Guatemala (2016):** Banned due to government interference in football affairs.
**Pakistan (2017, 2021 & 2025):** Suspended multiple times over governance issues within its football federation.
**Chad (2021):** Barred due to government interference in football matters.
**Russia (2022 & 2026):** Banned following the invasion of Ukraine, preventing them from competing in two World Cups.
**Zimbabwe (2022):** Suspended after the government-appointed Sports and Recreation Commission dissolved the country’s football federation.
**Kenya (2022):** Banned due to financial mismanagement within its football federation; however, they were later reinstated.
Congo (2025): Recently barred due to external interference in its football federation.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.
“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.
“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.
“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”
Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.
The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.
Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.
Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.
“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.
The lawmaker has made headlines in recent months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim the Akwa Ibom lawmaker has equally denied.
She was thereafter suspended by the Red Chamber for violation of its rule of conduct.
The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over 19 kidnapped victims rescued by the security agencies to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa.
The brief ceremony took place on Thursday at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja.
The victims included Ambassador Gideon Yohanna, the former Director-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retired) who had spent 56 days in captivity and 17 others, including a child.
Both Ribadu and Musa pledged to remain relentless until the criminals are wiped out and normalcy restored in the country.
“As a result of the work of our armed forces and other security services, we are able to rescue and bring back our own people,” he said.
“This time, it involves important personalities who served this country. We thank God for their lives, we are grateful to those who made it possible.
“This is an ongoing operation and we are doing it quite silently, we will go after the bad ones.”
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The female lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Usman Ododo and ex-governor Yahaya Bello of sponsoring her failed recall.
In a much-awaited statement on Thursday, INEC said the petition for the recall of the lawmaker did not met the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“Therefore, no further action shall be taken on the recall of the Senator,” INEC declared.