20 Worst Squads In FIFA World Cup History
12. United Arab Emirates (1990)
For many, Italia ‘90 is one of the most memorable World Cup tournaments in history. Remembered for many reasons such as being the Soviet Union’s last international football tournament, Italy’s shock defeat to Argentina and that penalty shootout between England and West Germany.
However, not every team will look back on Italia ‘90 fondly. 1990 saw the United Arab Emirates make their first (and at the time of writing) only appearance at the World Cup finals. They were an unexpected entry to the finals and given the performance of underdogs in international tournaments at the time (Denmark ‘88 Euros), some could have seen them as surprise packages. Unfortunately for the UAE, they were not a surprise package and in fact, became one of the worst entries to the finals from the entire decade.
Drawn against West Germany, Yugoslavia and Colombia, they were already in for an uphill battle. This was highlighted by an opening 0-2 loss to Colombia, which proved to be a rather respectable result compared to the 1-5 loss to West Germany and 1-4 loss to Yugoslavia. Having scored just two goals, UAE dropped out of the group stages with a -9 goal difference.