The CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers ended in surprising ways, as not only did Haiti manage to qualify for the first time since 1974 (a country currently controlled by criminal gangs, with basically no government and famine-level hunger), but Curaçao made history as the smallest ever country to qualify for World Cup.
After a very solid campaign with 3 wins, 3 draws, no defeats, and 13 goals for and only 3 against, a goal-less draw with Jamaica on Tuesday meant that Curaçao qualifies to World Cup with one more point than Jamaica, who go to the inter-confederation play-offs alongside Suriname, Iraq, DR Congo, Bolivia, and New Caledonia. Only two from those six will end up next year in the World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Here's a very funny video of the TV hosts in Curaçao reacting to VAR ruling out a penalty to Jamaica in the very last minute that could have crushed Curaçao's hopes...
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The smallest countries ever to qualify for World Cup
Curaçao, an independent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the South Caribbean, has 155,826 people, according to the 2023 census, and only 444 km2 of land. The second smallest country in population to qualify for World Cup was Iceland in 2018, but it had more than twice as Curaçao (391,810 people from the 2025 census).
Earlier this year, Cape Verde qualified for World Cup 2026 as the second (now third) smallest country in the FIFA competition, with around 525,000 people in ten islands, and the (now second) smallest in size, 4,033 km2 (still ten times larger than Curaçao).
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What do you think of Curaçao making it into World Cup 2026?