The Marshall Islands and Nauru do not have FIFA-affiliated national teams, so there are two UN member states that did not attempt to qualify. The only country with no FIBA-affiliated basketball team is Liechtenstein, so basketball is more universal than soccer by your metric. Something like track and field may be even more universal, but I’m not sure.
ThePevster t1_iy69vpv wrote
Reply to comment by Last-Caterpillar-112 in [OC] All teams/countries engaged in the world cup (at different stages) by laurentmolter
The Marshall Islands and Nauru do not have FIFA-affiliated national teams, so there are two UN member states that did not attempt to qualify. The only country with no FIBA-affiliated basketball team is Liechtenstein, so basketball is more universal than soccer by your metric. Something like track and field may be even more universal, but I’m not sure.