​India and China have the biggest populations in the globe and many of the combined 2.89 billion are big football fans – yet their national teams are conspicuously absent from a men’s World Cup with 48 teams.Meanwhile the 2026 tournament has the four highest-ranked teams in the last four – France v Spain and Argentina v England.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementChina qualified just once in 2002 and went out in the group stage in Japan and South Korea. They lost all three matches without scoring a goal. Despite piling vast sums into football development, the Chinese league has stalled.Cricket and hockey-mad India has never reached the men’s World Cup.Population does not translate into footballing success, but FIFA president Gianni Infantino has given them some hope of making the 2030 or 2034 editions by saying an increase to 64 teams should be looked at.”The whole world must be allowed to dream of the World Cup and not only Europe and South America,” Infantino was quoted as telling Swiss portal blue Sport on Saturday.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe tournament has only just been expanded to 48 for this edition. But the sight of debutants Cape Verde reaching the knock-outs and giving holders Argentina a fright, plus the Democratic Republic of the Congo impressing in only their second World Cup, means accusations of extra teams not being competitive can be combatted.Apart from the US and Brazil, eight of the 10 most populous countries on the planet are not at the World Cup – but soon might be.IndiaIn the world’s most populous country, cricket is the unchallenged national sport. The national team’s successes and the billion-dollar Indian Premier League tie up talent, money and attention – to football’s disadvantage.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe other key reasons cited for the lack of success in football, which is nevertheless popular in India, include bad infrastructure, insufficient talent development and the demanding climate.India wants to catch up. A professional league, the Indian Super League, has aimed to professionalize football since its launch in 2014, with investment from business and the entertainment industry.But the road to the World Cup is long. India were eliminated in the second qualifying round for 2026, finishing in the group behind Qatar and Kuwait.ChinaChina once again missed out on qualifying for the World Cup. In the FIFA world rankings they are way down in 91st place.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPresident Xi Jinping, like many Chinese, is considered to be a football fan and has set the goal of making his country a major footballing nation. But so far the Chinese game has made headlines more for match-fixing and corruption cases.Observers see a structural problem – clubs and leagues cannot develop independently in China where the Communist Party has built up a web of bureaucratic hurdles and controls over decades.Still, there is hope: the women’s team are doing better, ranking 16th in FIFA’s