"Money can buy a lot in modern football, but it can't buy a functioning team." Jonathan Wilson's line about Qatar's 2022 World Cup is brutal, accurate, and the only obituary their tournament performance really deserves.
Qatar didn't just become the first host nation eliminated at the group stage — they became the first to lose every single group game. Three matches on home soil. Zero points. Out before the second week of the tournament even began.
Just how bad was it?
Within 30 minutes of their opening game, Qatar were already 2-0 down to Ecuador. Five days later, a 3-1 defeat to Senegal made them the first host ever knocked out after just two games. The 2-0 loss to the Netherlands in their dead-rubber finale was almost an afterthought — except it wasn't, because it sealed a record nobody wants.
This was a nation that had spent a reported $220 billion staging the tournament. They arrived as Asian champions, with a respectable CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal as a guest nation under their belt. None of it mattered when the games kicked off.
South Africa's 2010 exit gets lumped into the same category — first-time host to fall at the group stage — but the comparison is unfair to Bafana Bafana. They picked up four points, beat France, and only went out on goal difference. They lost once, to a Uruguay side that reached the semifinals. Qatar lost to everyone.
What the history books say about hosting
The record across 22 tournaments is genuinely striking. Six nations have won the World Cup on home soil — Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), West Germany (1974), Argentina (1978), and France (1998). Two-thirds of all host nations produced their deepest-ever tournament run at home. Only four World Cups in 96 years didn't have a host or co-host in the top eight.
Qatar shattered that pattern spectacularly. Their odds of winning the tournament were listed at +25000. They delivered exactly on that billing.
Can the 2026 co-hosts avoid the same fate?
For the first time in history, three nations share hosting duties in 2026: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Their trajectories heading into the tournament couldn't be more different.
Mexico are the ones with history on their side. Both of their deepest World Cup runs — quarterfinals in 1970 and 1986 — came on home turf. They've reached the last 16 in seven consecutive tournaments between 1994 and 2018. Manager Javier Aguirre guided them to the knockouts in both 2002 and 2010. After a rough patch that included a six-game winless streak in 2025, El Tri have won six and drawn two of their final warmups, including a 5-1 demolition of Serbia. They enter Group A — alongside Czechia, South Africa, and South Korea — as the highest-ranked team at 14th in the world, and the bookmakers' favourites to top it.
The USMNT's recent form is harder to read. Back-to-back losses to Belgium (5-2) and Portugal (2-0) in March weren't exactly ideal preparation, and a 2-1 defeat to Germany in their final warmup maintained a run of three losses in four. Still, they're ranked 16th, Christian Pulisic ended an 18-month international goal drought against Senegal, and the bookmakers still give them the shortest odds to win Group D ahead of Türkiye, Paraguay, and Australia. Their 1994 home tournament ended in the last 16, narrowly, against eventual champions Brazil — that's the template Pochettino's side will be hoping to follow.
Canada are the biggest question mark. Ranked 30th, they arrive with six losses from six World Cup appearances and are drawn against Switzerland — knockout-stage regulars at four of the last five tournaments — alongside Bosnia-Herzegovina and, of all teams, Qatar. The Swiss are the clear group favourites. But Canada have lost just once in their last 11, rank above both Bosnia and Qatar in the FIFA standings, and are installed as the second favourites to progress. It's a winnable group. Whether they can win it is another matter entirely.
Six World Cup hosts have lifted the trophy. Only two have gone home without a single point. Qatar holds the record for the worse of those two exits — and given the 2026 co-hosts' collective pedigree, it may hold that record for a very long time.
