'Biggest underachievers in world football'

[exile]

Iran are another example of a country who have qualified for several world cups but seem to have a ceiling. They've been to 7 world cups now and never got beyond group stage - four times in the last 4 world cups - most recently this time, going out unbeaten, on goal difference. That's almost Scotland-like!

Or even worse than us, in their last game they had a stoppage-time 'goal' ruled out by VAR just when they thought they'd won. And then had to wait agonisingly to learn if they'd be one of the best third placed teams (on zero goal difference) but it wasn't to be.

[Bzzzz]

On 7/14/2026 at 5:51 PM, vanderark14 said:

Scotland are under achievers IMO, however the crown belongs to England. 

Easily. They have 10x the population, immeasurable wealth and resources and they've won the same number of trophies as us in the last 66 years... 1 less if you count the Kirin Cup! 🤣

 

[Grim Jim]

The Rous Cup totally forgettable then 😄

[Clyde1998]

Interesting looking back at how much Spain had underachieved until they won Euro 2008.

They one made one semi-final of a tournament between their 1964 European Championship victory and Euro 2008 (1984 European Championships).

Since then, they've won the Euros three times; the World Cup twice; and the Nations League.

[exile]

1 hour ago, Clyde1998 said:

Interesting looking back at how much Spain had underachieved until they won Euro 2008.

They one made one semi-final of a tournament between their 1964 European Championship victory and Euro 2008 (1984 European Championships).

Since then, they've won the Euros three times; the World Cup twice; and the Nations League.

Pretty sure someone on the (UK) TV said something like that the other night, said in a way as if to say "we used to think of Spain as the perennial underachievers of big nations, but they turned it around..." as if thinking "when it is out turn?"

[mcnish]

Sorry to shatter some illusions here but I don't think England's failure to win more than one tournament is somehow a greater failure than our inability to ever get out of our group at any tournament. 

The obsession over England did us no favours at the 2021 Euros when players (and fans) seemed only to be up for it when playing England and oblivious to.the bigger picture. 

[exile]

3 minutes ago, mcnish said:

Sorry to shatter some illusions here but I don't think England's failure to win more than one tournament is somehow a greater failure than our inability to ever get out of our group at any tournament. 

The obsession over England did us no favours at the 2021 Euros when players (and fans) seemed only to be up for it when playing England and oblivious to.the bigger picture. 

I don't think anyone is under any illusions, our failure to get out the groups is etched in the psyche of those who followed each failed campaign. Everyone knows our failure to the point of outsiders writing articles about it. 

But I think it does no harm to reflect that failure is a relative thing and there's a range of ways of being seen to underachieve.

I don't think anyone, players or fans, wouldn't have preferred to lose to England but get out the group, to imagine otherwise would be the illusion.

[fraz65]

On 7/15/2026 at 2:51 AM, vanderark14 said:

Scotland are under achievers IMO, however the crown belongs to England. 

I would go with India. With a population of 1.3 billion they don't even get close to qualifying for the World Cup despite being in the easiest confederation to qualify from. 

There are cities in India bigger than Scotland that nobody has even heard of. 

Edited July 20 by fraz65

[mcnish]

I'm throwing Bangladesh in too, per capita possibly even worse than India

[vanderark14]

10 hours ago, exile said:

I don't think anyone is under any illusions, our failure to get out the groups is etched in the psyche of those who followed each failed campaign. Everyone knows our failure to the point of outsiders writing articles about it. 

But I think it does no harm to reflect that failure is a relative thing and there's a range of ways of being seen to underachieve.

I don't think anyone, players or fans, wouldn't have preferred to lose to England but get out the group, to imagine otherwise would be the illusion.

Agreed

Everyone I know would've taken a beating from England to get enough points be the rest to get through. The celebration post England was more to do with the fact we were still in the tournament after playing a top seed on their own ground