10 Worst World Cup Teams Ever

It's the taking part that counts.

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Flickr, George M. Groutas

The World Cup is all about watching the best of the best. Once every four years, we see the greatest players of each nation pitted against each other in a battle for football's most prestigious prize. But not every team can be as good as the likes of Germany and Brazil.

Inevitably, some lower-ranked teams end up qualifying for the tournament and know that they don't stand much of a chance of making an impact or even winning a single game. Some of these underdogs manage to spring a few surprises and enjoy a couple of decent results, but many go home without earning a single point.

At the 2018 World Cup, we've already seen the likes of Morocco and Saudi Arabia go out with a whimper after losing their opening games without scoring a single goal, and history is filled with examples of low-ranked nations enduring similarly terrible World Cup campaigns.

It's always an honour and an achievement for any player or nation to appear at a World Cup, and at least these teams can say they took part in football's biggest event - but some of them probably wish they'd never even turned up.

10. Bolivia (1950)

The 1950 World Cup was the first tournament since 1938 due to World War II. The event was held in Brazil and was notable for the fact that Germany and Japan were banned from participating and many other nations refused or withdrew from the event in the build-up. Given how their tournament turned out, Bolivia should probably have done the same.

The South American side found themselves drawn in Group 4 alongside Uruguay and France, but the French later withdrew due to travel problems. Weirdly, this meant that Group 4 only featured two teams and would be decided by a single match.

Uruguay, who went on to win the whole tournament, absolutely demolished the Bolivians. They were 4-0 up by half-time and added another four after the break, completing an 8-0 thrashing to send Bolivia home and earn an unwanted place in history for one of the worst World Cup defeats ever.

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Mike Pedley hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.