Why does Argentina have to compete in the World Cup qualifiers despite winning the world championship?

Why does Argentina have to play the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Mexico, the US and Canada even though it is the 2022 world champion? This question is asked by many people and even those who know the answer are surprised about FIFA's regulations.

From 1938 to 2002, all the teams that became world champions were exempt from qualifying for the next World Cup. For example, Argentina went through this at the 1982 and 1990 World Cups to win the world championships in 1978 and 1986. They also did not play in the 1978 World Cup qualifiers as the host country.

But more than two decades ago, FIFA decided to change the rules of the game after Brazil's championship in Korea-Japan 2002. Despite having won 5 times, Selecao still had to compete in the next qualifying round. It was the beginning of a new era and Italy (2006), Spain (2010), Germany (2014) and France (2018) had to repeat themselves. Argentina does the same on its way to the 2026 tournament. Notably, so far, the qualifying teams have all qualified for the next World Cup.

The next World Cup will be special because the number of participating teams has been increased from 32 to 48, distributed in terms of locations and confederations: Asia (8), Africa (9), North Central America and the Caribbean (6) , South America (6), Oceania (1), Europe (16).

At Conmebol, Argentina will play against 9 other teams with a total of 18 matches (first and second legs). The debut of Lionel Messi and his teammates took place on Friday morning against Ecuador at the Monumental. They then traveled to Bolivia to play Wednesday morning on top of La Paz.