The 2026 World Cup, the biggest ever, featured a record nine Asian teams, up from six in the previous tournament. But after Japan crashed out to a late goal against Brazil on June 29, it only leaves Australia, which joined the Asian Football Confederation as recently as 2006. The contrast is stark with Africa, with nine out of the 10 nations that qualified advancing to the knockout stages, even underdogs like Cabo Verde.
In the early 2000s, Sepp Blatter, the then-head of football’s governing body Fifa, spoke of where he saw the sport going. “In Asia, you have more than half the world’s population,” he said. “The future of football must be in Asia.”
With a clear link between finances and on-pitch success, it was a common sentiment for the growing region, and as the World Cup opened in Japan and South Korea in 2002, many predicted the new century would see a winner emerge from this part of the world.
