Italy isn't the first country to have a World Cup drought
Italy missed out on qualifying for the 2022 World Cup after losing 1-0 to North Macedonia on Thursday night.
Italy has now been eliminated from the World Cup for at least the next 12 years, after also failing to qualify for the 2018 event. They also performed poorly in the two World Cups they did qualify for, in 2010 and 2014.
Italy since winning the World Cup in 2006:
2010: Knocked out at group stage
2014: Knocked out at group stage
2018: Failed to qualify
2022: Failed to qualify
😳 https://t.co/stFa5h0CdL
It's strange, but they're not the only European heavyweights to go through a period without a World Cup summer/winter to look forward to.
England 1970-1982
England's World Cup qualifying record is quite good, despite their proclivity towards sarcasm and self-destruction.
England have only failed to qualify three times since 1950, when they decided to compete against all the other, plainly weaker footballing nations. Two of those came in consecutive tournaments, as The Inventors Of The Game went 12 years without competing in the game's pinnacle event.
Thus gave them plenty of time to mull over their choice to bench Bobby Charlton in the 1970 quarter-final.
The inability to qualify for the 1974 tournament was largely attributed to the failure to score the winning goal against Poland goalie Jan Tomaszewski. This 1-1 match is often presented as a horrible embarrassment for England when it is discussed now, probably partially due to Clough's infamous words.
Clough famously called the polish goalie a "clown" before the game.
The shock of missing out on the World Cup for the first time was understandable, but the disrespect for Poland was excessive. They were Olympic winners (I know, I know) and finished third in the West German championships.
Italy, the current World Cup qualification mischief-makers, denied England four years later, despite the game being as tight as a cat's arse. Both England and Italy dispatched Finland and Luxembourg, the two minnows in their four-team group, although Italy were significantly more decisive.
With both England and Italy winning 2-0 at home and only first place being good enough to advance, that made all the difference. Despite a five-win record in six games, England were eliminated.
Netherlands, 1978-1990
Again, it's another oddball. In a sea of failures, the iconic Cruyff-powered finalists of 1974 and 1978 stand out as a bizarre, almost-successful island.
Between 1938 and 1974, the Netherlands failed to qualify for six World Cups, missing out on both 1982 and 1986 before limping out of Italia 90 in the last-16 stage.
Recent Dutch teams have maintained these perplexing, inexplicably inconsistent traditions. They reached two semi-finals and a final in the last six World Cup editions but missed out on two of the other three.
They did, however, make it to Qatar. So, be on the lookout.
France, 1986-1998
It's almost as though international football teams' strength is cyclical.
France endured a 12-year wait to qualify again after the famous Platini, Battiston, and Tigana trio placed fourth in 1982 and went one better in Mexico four years later. They only did so by hosting the event, which is essentially cheating.
They did, after all, win it with a team that had luminaries like Desailly, Henry, and Guivarc'h, so they'd be alright. However, your Deschampses, Cantonas, and, most notoriously, Ginolas failed to get France to the finals in the first two tournaments of 1990s.
For the love of God, they finished second to Scotland in qualifying for Italia 90. But four years later, when they were knocked out of contention for USA 94, they managed to surpass even that disgrace.
France were almost there, with the job nearly completed. They were humiliated at home by Israel. Things were a little risky as a result, but they should have been alright.
Everything would be OK if they could just avoid losing to Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes. On the half-hour, Cantona gave them a nerve-wracking lead, and despite Bulgaria's equalizer, France remained on track until the 90th minute.
Ginola, a late substitute, had the ball near the corner flag. Instead, he crossed it, sparking a Bulgarian counter-offensive. It culminated in Emil Kostadinov slamming home his second to turn qualifying on its head.
We all know the famous words that came out of England's inability to qualify for the World Cup, but France's failure is possibly more memorable.
Italy, 2014-?
You have to hand it to Italy, who have spent the last 20 years or so as a completely, utterly absurd feast-or-famine football team.
Their official World Cup finishes in the twenty-first century are 15th, 1st, 26th, 22nd, DNQ, and DNQ. Between those two group-stage World Cup exits, they reached the final of Euro 2012, and, as you may recall, they won Euro 2020 between their two failures to qualify.
It's a fantastic way to act, and we love the silly pieces of fun it generates.
Look what it meant to North Macedonia after knocking out Italy! ❤️💛
(via ffmacedonia/IG) https://t.co/PqUAbZFzXr
Take, for example, the reality that Italy hasn't played a World Cup knockout game since the 2006 final, and it will be at least 20 years before they do so again.
The good news for Italy is that absolutely everyone will qualify for 2026 when the number of participants goes up to 183 or some such thing. Or the fact that, in the 20 years since capturing the cup, Italy has only won one game at a World Cup, and that game was against England.