The most disappointing hosts in the history of the World Cup are South Africa and Qatar, and they are also the only two hosts who failed to make it out of the group. Hosting the World Cup is a long-cherished dream of most teams. As we all know, the benefits that the host country receives in the World Cup are diverse, so hosting the World Cup is the best opportunity to create the best results in history. Strong teams such as France, Germany, Argentina, and England have all won the World Cup with the help of home advantage. Brazil failed to win the World Cup twice, but at least reached the semi-finals.
In this regard, Sweden, Chile, and South Korea, the three second-rate teams, can be regarded as using their home advantage to the extreme, and they all achieved the best results in history when they hosted the World Cup. Obviously, with their strength, it is difficult to replicate the results of the runner-up, the third runner-up, and the third runner-up in another place.
However, there are also 5 hosts in the history of the World Cup, and the results are not very impressive. Although they all made it through the group, they were only one step further than South Africa and Qatar.
The so-called one more step is nothing more than stopping in the first round of the knockout round. In the early days, this stage was the quarter-finals, and later it was expanded to be the quarter-finals.
The first host was Switzerland in the 1954 World Cup. In that World Cup, the protagonists were Germany and Hungary, while Switzerland was defeated by Austria just after qualifying from the group due to their limited strength. However, it is worth mentioning that the quarterfinals between Switzerland and Austria played an exaggerated score of 7:5.
Since then, however, Switzerland's ceiling in the World Cup has been the first round of the knockout round. So in the 1954 World Cup, Switzerland, as the host, also created the best result in history, and they have not been able to make a breakthrough until now.
The second host was Mexico in the 1970 World Cup. Mexico has hosted two World Cups and is about to host its third with other countries. The first two times, Mexico's results were in the quarterfinals, but there is still a fundamental difference between the two quarterfinals. In the 1986 World Cup, Mexico actually reached the second knockout round, while in the 1970 World Cup there were only 16 teams, and the quarterfinals here are obviously not as valuable as the later quarterfinals.
It is worth mentioning that if Mexico also wins the quarterfinals in the 2026 World Cup, then the gold content of this quarterfinals will exceed that of 1986. Everyone understands.
The third host was Spain in the 1982 World Cup. As mentioned earlier, the first round of the knockout round is either a quarter-final or an eighth-finals, which seems to be inaccurate, because the format of the 1982 World Cup is relatively special, and after the group stage, it is a new round of group stage, with 3 teams in each group, and the first place directly advances to the semi-finals. So, in that World Cup, Spain played 5 games, and none of them were knockouts.
In addition, Spain's final result is not the quarterfinals, nor the sixteenth, but the strange top twelve.
The fourth host was the United States in the 1994 World Cup. In fact, the United States is already lucky to be able to advance from the group. They finished third in their group and would have been eliminated if they had followed the pre-1986 format.
However, the United States should not be too sorry, after all, they will face Brazil in the quarterfinals, and they don't seem to have the strength to beat Brazil to reach the quarterfinals.
The fifth host was Japan at the 2002 World Cup. I'll have to say a few more words here. This World Cup has two hosts, namely Japan and South Korea. Compared with South Korea's semi-finals, Japan's results of being eliminated just after qualifying from the group are indeed a bit unbeatable. But first, this is the first time that Japan has reached the knockout stage of the World Cup, which can be regarded as making history. Second, Japan made it out of the group cleanly, lost the quarterfinals cleanly, and left with their heads held high, which is really nothing to blame.
I'm talking about Japan, but I seem to be talking about other teams.
Finally, let's talk about the 2026 World Cup. The United States, Canada, and Mexico, as hosts, are bound to draw good lots. And the large-scale expansion of the World Cup will definitely prepare some weak teams for them. Therefore, it is basically not a problem for the three teams to join hands to reach the round of 32. But the next game, it's hard to say. Objectively speaking, none of the three teams has the absolute certainty of defeating opponents of the same level or even stronger opponents in the knockout round. Therefore, in the 2026 World Cup, there is a high probability that there will be a sixth host to stop the first round of the knockout round.
Of these, Canada is the most likely.