Learn English – “Have never won” v/s “had never won”

grammargrammaticality-in-contextperfect-constructions

In a book I found a sentence like this:

The 2010 FIFA World Cup culminated in an epic final with two teams
that have never won the World Cup.

I'm wondering why have never won is used instead of had never won.

Best Answer

"Have never won" should not be used here. Obviously, one of the teams has now won. The correct form would indeed be "had never won," indicating that neither of the teams had won until that game.

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