Curaçao has made history by becoming the smallest country by population to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Caribbean island nation confirmed their spot after a goalless draw against Jamaica last night at Kingston’s National Stadium.
With this achievement, Curaçao surpassed Iceland, who previously held the record. Iceland, with a population of 398,266, became the smallest country to play in a World Cup in 2018. According to Worldometer, Curaçao, ranked 189th in global population with 185,487 residents, has now broken that record.
In the CONCACAF qualifiers, Haiti also earned a World Cup spot for the first time in 52 years by defeating Nicaragua 2–0. Their last and only World Cup appearance came in 1974. Haiti topped Group C with 11 points in 6 matches.
From Group A, Panama beat El Salvador 3–0 to qualify for only the second World Cup in their history. Last month, Cape Verde, with a population of 525,000, became the second-smallest country ever to qualify for a World Cup.
Curaçao narrowly avoided defeat against Jamaica. In the second half, Jamaica were awarded a penalty, but VAR overturned the decision. The island nation, which spans only 444 square kilometers, finished undefeated at the top of Group B with 12 points. Just 10 years ago, Curaçao were ranked 150th in the FIFA rankings—today, they stand at 82.
Curaçao, alongside Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, and Jordan, will be making their first-ever World Cup appearance in the 2026 edition.
Curaçao is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the national team is coached by Dutch manager Dick Advocaat. Due to “family reasons,” he was not present in the dugout during the match against Jamaica. However, his team still earned qualification, helping the 78-year-old set a unique record: he will become the oldest coach to stand in a World Cup dugout in 2026. This breaks the previous record held by Otto Rehhagel, who coached Greece at age 71 in the 2010 World Cup.
Dutch media reported that Advocaat watched the match at 2 AM local time from the Netherlands. He remained in contact with team manager Wouter Janssen by phone and gave key instructions during halftime. Having coached seven different national teams, Advocaat naturally expressed immense joy after securing World Cup qualification.
Jamaica, meanwhile, had every reason to be disappointed. In the second half, they struck the Curaçao post three times but failed to score. After failing to secure direct qualification, Jamaica’s head coach Steve McClaren resigned from his position.
All Curaçao players were born in the Netherlands and are of Antillean descent.
Because the United States, Canada, and Mexico automatically qualified as hosts for the 2026 World Cup, CONCACAF had three additional available slots in the main tournament. Those were filled by Curaçao, Panama, and Haiti.
Additionally, two more teams will qualify through the intercontinental play-offs, which will be held in North America next March.
The six teams competing in the play-offs are:
Bolivia, DR Congo, Iraq, Jamaica, New Caledonia, and Suriname.