More than a month after Iran raised the possibility of withdrawing from the World Cup over concerns about the team's security, the president of soccer's global governing body said Thursday that it will participate as scheduled.
"Let me start at the outset confirming straightaway for those who maybe want to say something else or want to write something else that of course Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Thursday at the FIFA World Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia. "And of course Iran will play in the United States of America."
The World Cup, which runs June 11 through July 19, will be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Iran is scheduled to play New Zealand in Inglewood, California, on June 15 and Belgium on June 21 before it travels to Seattle for a June 26 matchup against Egypt.
The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 that killed the Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Only two days later, the president of Iran's soccer federation told The Associated Press that following the attack, "we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope." Then, on March 11, Iran's sports minister cast more doubt on the country's participation.
“Given that this government has assassinated our leader, we cannot participate in the World Cup. Our players do not have security,” Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said in March, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency. “Certainly, we do not have the possibility of such participation.”
Infantino has said on social media that he has lobbied President Donald Trump about ensuring Iran can take part. In March, Infantino posted on Instagram that “we all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever.” Yet an envoy to the Trump administration has acknowledged that he raised the possibility of replacing Iran with Italy, which did not qualify for the World Cup. An Italian official later told Sky News that the idea was “not possible and secondly, not appropriate.”
Trump — whom Infantino awarded the "FIFA Peace Prize" in December — has frequently changed his tone on whether he wants Iran to play as scheduled. "I really don't care" if Iran plays, he told Politico in early March. Later that month he posted on Truth Social that "The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety."
Last week, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Iranian team would be welcome to play in the U.S. but that the U.S. would deny entry to anyone with ties to Iran's military.
"Nothing from the U.S. has told [players] they can’t come," Rubio told reporters. "If they decide not to come on their own, it’s because they decided not to come."
