Maltese football enthusiasts reel as San Marino makes football history
San Marino, the world’s worst football team, is, with a bit of luck, two games away from World Cup qualification. The minnow country’s unprecedented success in the Nations League leaves Maltese football enthusiasts with a bitter taste. K
San Marino is officially the world’s worst football team. It placed 210th in FIFA’s latest rankings published last month – last in class.
And yet, the tiny landlocked country, roughly the size of Gozo with a population of around 35,000, has the World Cup 2026 playoffs in its sight.
San Marino beat Liechtenstein 3-1 in Vaduz last Monday to finish top of Group D1 of the UEFA Nations League. The three-team group also included Gibraltar. Like Malta, San Marino played in League D of the tournament – the lowest tier league.
The top placing means San Marino is automatically promoted to League C, a feat that has eluded the Maltese football team so far despite having a better FIFA ranking – Malta placed 169 in October’s rankings.
Monday’s victory was the second consecutive victory against Liechtenstein in as many months and only the third win in San Marino’s young footballing history. The country’s first official match took place in 1990 when it became affiliated with FIFA, the international footballing body.
Two games away from World Cup qualification
But the dreamier prize after Monday’s promotion is San Marino’s possibility of being just two games away from World Cup qualification.
With Europe sending 16 teams to the next World Cup that will be held in Canada, Mexico and the US in 2026, four of the teams will be decided by play-offs to be held in March 2026. The play-offs will involve the 12 teams that would have finished runners-up in the World Cup Qualifiers and the four best-ranked group winners of the Nations League that failed to place first or second in the World Cup Qualifiers.
There are 14 teams in the Nations League who won their respective groups, including San Marino and with a stroke of luck, they could be one of those teams making it to the play-offs if enough group winners would have already qualified for the World Cup or ended up runners-up. This is the same path followed by lowly Georgia when qualifying for the European Cup finals held last summer.
Europe’s third smallest independent State after the Vatican and Monaco is truly experiencing footballing magic in an otherwise bleak footballing history. San Marino lost all but 13 of the more than 200 friendly and competitive matches played since 1990. Its three victories all came against fellow minnows, Liechtenstein.
Nonetheless, San Marino is feasting its unprecedented success, unlike Malta, which ended its Group D run last week with a goalless draw against Andorra to finish in second place. Malta was also in a three-team group in League D that included first-placed Moldova.
Nonetheless, Malta can still gain promotion to League C through a play-off match next March against Luxembourg. Football enthusiasts will be hoping for victory in a bid to break the otherwise lacklustre history in the Nations League.
In the first tournament held in the 2018/2019 season, Malta was ranked 54th out of 55 teams, above San Marino. It moved up two places to 52 in the final rankings of the 2020/2021 season and remained there in the following tournament held in season 2022/2023. Every time, San Marino ranked below Malta.
The overall rankings for this year’s tournament still have to be determined but Malta has thus far been anchored in League D, the lowest tier. The situation leaves football enthusiasts with a bitter taste when one considers that far smaller nations like Gibraltar, the Faroe Islands and now San Marino have managed to gain promotion to a higher league at some point over the past six years.
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