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Why Qatar qualified for World Cup, but not Italy<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n In the latest FIFA rankings, Italy<\/a> is ranked as the No. 12 team in the world. Qatar<\/a> is No. 56.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n But at this newly expanded 48-team World Cup in North America, Qatar is part of the tournament. They qualified. Italy is not. They missed their qualifying chance.<\/p>\n It’s not the only discrepancy like that, but with Qatar getting its tournament underway on Saturday against Switzerland<\/a>, it stands out.<\/p>\n By pretty much every available metric, Italy is a far better team than Qatar.<\/p>\n Yet with the way World Cup qualifying works, Qatar is the team taking part in this event, not Italy.<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Cyle Larin proves all the cliches true for Canada<\/a><\/p>\n Qatar takes part in the Asian Football Confederation qualification process, which has a number of rounds stacked upon each other.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In the third round, Qatar finished fourth in the table after 10 games, and that was good enough to qualify for one more round — Iran<\/a> and Uzbekistan<\/a> qualified directly for the World Cup in that third round, while Qatar got the chance to keep playing.<\/p>\n Qatar then played a game apiece against the United Arab Emirates and Oman, beating the UAE and drawing with Oman, which was enough to finish first in that little three-team round robin and advance to the World Cup.<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Tim Howard commercial disrespects USMNT legend<\/a><\/p>\n Italy failed to coffin from its UEFA qualifying group.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n They were second to Norway<\/a> in the group, which sent Italy into the European playoff stages.<\/p>\n There, they lost on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina to clinch the fact that they would miss out on the tournament.<\/p>\nHow Qatar qualified for the World Cup<\/h2>\n
Why isn’t Italy in the World Cup?<\/h2>\n