It was not until ten full minutes after the referee had called time on their game against Portugal that the huddle of South Korean players started celebrating at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan on Friday. That was when confirmation came in that Uruguay had only beaten Ghana by two goals, one shy of what they needed. It marked a memorable return to the knockout stages for South Korea after almost a decade, and for only the third time in their history. It also marked a watershed moment in football’s history as well. South Korea had become the sixth team from outside Europe and South America to qualify for the knockout stages. At no other edition of the World Cup has this number been so high.
Six of the sixteen teams were from Asia, Africa and North America. Never before had three teams from Asia made the Round of 16 since the inception of the 32-team World Cup in 1998. Through Senegal and Morocco, Africa too equalled its best-ever tally of two representatives, that it had set in 2014.“I could feel that the times have changed,” Japan’s coach Hajime Moriyasu said after his team qualified for the knockouts. “These players are playing in a new age of Japanese football." He could have been speaking for his continent as a whole.
Since the first World Cup was played in 1930, the teams participating always came from two categories. There were the footballing superpowers — teams from Europe and South America, who have won every World Cup till date. Their pedigree is undisputed. Their domination of the sport’s biggest tournament has been so complete that only on two occasions has a team from outside this bloc featured in the semifinals. The United States made the semifinals of the first-ever World Cup way back in 1930. Then, in 2002, co-hosts South Korea made an impossible run to the semifinals, where they were beaten narrowly by Germany.
The disparity between this elite bloc and the rest of the world — Asia, Africa, Oceania and North America — have always been reflected in the way the game is run. Qatar 2022 marks only the sixth time of 22 occasions where the Cup has been hosted by a country from the latter three continents. It still reflects in the way each confederation gets qualifying spots at the World Cup.
In 1966, Europe and South America together contributed 14 of the 16 teams. Asia, Africa and Oceania together had one qualifying spot to fight for. Things might be a lot better in 2022, but the disparity remains. UEFA, the European confederation with 55 members, got 13 slots to fill in Qatar.
In comparison, CAF, the African confederation with 54 members, got just 5. Much has been made of the fact that in 2026 — the first 48-team World Cup — the 47 teams from Asia will fight it out for 8 direct entries and a playoff spot. At the same time, the 10 countries that represent South America — CONMEBOL — will have six spots and a playoff berth to play four. The South American qualifying process will essentially be to eliminate three teams!
A couple of weeks ago, an Asian country complaining about this would have been met with derision and a flaunting of South America’s pedigree at World Cups. However, on Friday, the argument — perhaps for the first time in the history of football seemed justified. Only Brazil and Argentina represented CONMEBOL in the knockouts. AFC had Australia, Japan and South Korea.