On November 18, 2025, Curaçao became the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup. What was once a small Caribbean island that many people barely knew, is now a nation competing on the world’s biggest stage in 2026.

Against all odds, Curaçao managed to score against Germany and draw with Ecuador. People see the results, the headlines, and the moments on the biggest stage in football. Few actually see the amount of training, discipline, and effort that made those moments possible.

The same is true in the audit profession. What people see is the end result: an audit opinion, a signed report, and a completed file. That result is only the final step of a much longer process.

Just like in football, where invisible months of training determine what happens on match day, audit work is shaped by countless hours behind the scenes. Hours spent gathering audit evidence, performing risk assessments, designing sampling approaches, and gaining an understanding of the client’s business processes through discussions and walkthroughs.

Along the way, you encounter moments where something does not work as expected and the approach needs to be adjusted. Work is revisited, refined, and improved. Feedback from a manager or partner provides direction on what needs to be strengthened, much like a coach guiding adjustments during preparation or after a match.

When Curaçao stepped onto the pitch in its first-ever World Cup match, belief outweighed expectation, even against a team like Germany.

In the same way, the public places a high level of trust in the auditor as a gatekeeper of financial reporting. What is often not visible is the foundation of that trust.

Trust is not created at the moment of signing an audit opinion. It is built over time.

It is built through consistent work in the background: understanding the client’s business, identifying risks, testing controls, and challenging assumptions where necessary. It is built in the moments where something does not make sense and needs to be revisited. And it is reinforced again when feedback leads to improvements that strengthen the final file.

Much like in football, where analysis, reflection, and adjustment follow every match, audit work follows the same cycle. Mistakes are not the end point, they are part of the process of moving toward a better outcome.

When Curaçao entered the World Cup, it was no longer defined by being “small.” Its presence was what mattered.

The same applies in the audit profession. Once you are in the room with clients, partners, and stakeholders, labels no longer define the conversation. What matters is the responsibility to deliver quality work and exercise sound judgment.

At that point, nobody is judging the process anymore. They are judging the result.

And that is exactly why the process matters so much.

Because when the final whistle blows, whether in a World Cup match or at the sign-off of an audit file, there is no time left to explain what went into it. All that remains is the outcome.

The qualification is visible, the process is not.