Argentina And Italy are two of the most iconic national teams in football history, with seven World Cup titles in between. However, they now find themselves in very different situations: while the South Americans are reigning World Cup champions, the Europeans have missed the last two editions and are struggling to secure their place in the competition. FIFA tournament in 2026. In this context, an unexpected exchange took place between Gennaro Gattuso And Emiliano Martinez.
The head coach of the Italian national team spoke during this international break about the difficulties his country faces in securing a place at the 2026 World Cup, as the country seems destined for the play-offs after falling behind Norway in Group I.
“No regrets” Gattuso said at a press conference, according to Marking. “Winning helps winning, but we have to understand the criteria well. We’ve talked about it before, but that has to happen too.” see South American groups with 10 teams, six of which qualify and the seventh goes to a play-off against Oceania… the biggest regret is that: not qualifying directly. We certainly need to revise the criteria.”
Emiliano Martinez’s response to Gattuso
Gennaro Gattuso’s comments did not go unnoticed in South America, and did so hours later Argentina star responded. ‘They don’t know what South America is’ Emiliano Martinez told it DSports. “There are other problems that they don’t see in Europe… They always play on perfect, watered fields.”
Argentina has won three World Cup titles.
The Aston Villa goalkeeper pointed out that beyond the number of spots and the size of qualifying tournamentsSouth America has internal and external circumstances that make competition tougher than in Europe. Altitude, heat, hostile stadium atmosphere and the quality of the pitches are some of the factors that explain this difference.
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The World Cup qualifying format
Gennaro Gattuso’s words about the qualification criteria and the distribution of World Cup spots echo the complaints other figures have made in recent years. Some argue that qualification systems are easier on certain continents than others, giving certain national teams unwarranted advantages.
However, Europe is the continent with the largest representation. Sixteen of the 48 teams at the World Cup will be European– almost double the next closest region, Africa (9). Stand behind them Asia (8), South America (6), Concacaf (3, plus the 3 hosts), And Oceania (1). The last two spots will be awarded through an intercontinental play-off in March.
These allocations reflect geographical and sporting criteria. On the one hand, the number of countries in each region is taken into account. But the level of competition also matters – and here’s why South America qualifies between 60% and 70% of its teams for the FIFA tournament.
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It’s worth remembering that three Conmebol countries – Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay – together hold almost half of all World Cup titles in history (10 out of 22), which underlines the strength of the region. Meanwhile, continents like Africa or Asia, despite having about five times as many national teams, have yet to win a single title.
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