The champions' curse: when the reigning winner falls at the first hurdle
France 2002, Italy 2010, Spain 2014 and Germany 2018 all crashed out in the group stage as reigning champions — a pattern haunting recent winners.
Winning the World Cup is the summit; defending the title has become, in the 21st century, a burden. In four of the last editions, the reigning champions were knocked out in the group stage.
The most striking case was France in 2002: champions in 1998, they went out without scoring a single goal (0-1 to Senegal, 0-0 with Uruguay and 0-2 to Denmark). Italy repeated the flop in 2010, bottom of their group with two draws and a defeat.
Spain, champions in 2010, came unstuck in 2014: a 1-5 against the Netherlands and a 0-2 against Chile sent them home after just two games. And Germany, champions in 2014, finished bottom of their group in 2018, with defeats to Mexico and South Korea.
It is not a written rule — Brazil did get through the group stage in 2006 — but the pattern has repeated often enough to speak of a champions' «curse». A warning for the reigning winner at every new World Cup.
Source: Wikipedia (group stages of the 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups).