Venezuela’s World Cup drought continues

Venezuela remain CONMEBOL’s perennial World Cup absentee, once again missing out on qualification for 2026 after a damaging 3‑6 defeat to Colombia on the final matchday. The Vinotinto, long overshadowed by baseball in the national sporting landscape, are still the only South American side never to appear at the tournament.

Their latest failure is particularly painful given that a play‑off berth was within reach until the final round. Fernando Batista’s team had occupied seventh place for four consecutive matchdays and controlled their destiny, but slipping to eighth, two points behind Bolivia, ended their hopes. Venezuela also hold several unwanted records: the most defeats in CONMEBOL qualifying, with 112 from 176 matches, and the most goals conceded, with 376. After joining CONMEBOL in 1953 and contesting qualifiers from 1964, they endured eight consecutive bottom‑place finishes. Their best campaign came ahead of Brazil 2014, finishing sixth and narrowly missing both automatic qualification and the play‑offs.