Latvia, a Baltic nation of under 2 million people, continues its journey through European football qualifying without yet reaching the World Cup stage. Their single major tournament appearance — Euro 2004, where they were famously led by manager Aleksandrs Starkovs — remains the peak of Latvian football, now over 20 years ago.
| Appearances | 0 |
| Best Finish | Never qualified for World Cup |
| Last Appearance | Never qualified |
| 2022 Result | Did not qualify |
Latvia's players compete across Scandinavian, Eastern European and occasionally English lower-league football, with Emīls Ūsiņš Bogdanovs and others representing the current generation.
Latvia's non-qualification for FIFA 2026 is consistent with their long-term position within European football — a small Baltic nation that made a remarkable one-time breakthrough at Euro 2004 but has struggled to replicate or build on that achievement. Limited domestic league quality and a small player pool constrain their realistic qualification ceiling.
Latvian fans can follow the tournament through the Baltic region's football development story — Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia all continue parallel journeys, and watching how Group B's qualified European nations perform provides context for Baltic ambitions.
Follow FIFA 2026 on T Sports and Sony Sports in Bangladesh. Latvian football league (Latvijas futbola virslīga) continues through summer alongside the tournament.