Iran team ‘coming for sure’ to 2026 World Cup in U.S.
The Iran men’s national football team was one of the first teams to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America; This event will be FIFA’s biggest ever, not only in terms of space and participating teams, but also in terms of business, and is expected to generate more than $11 billion in revenue.
However, in the midst of the US-Iran war, Iran’s participation in the tournament remained a question mark.
Last month, Iran’s sports minister He made his position clear: “Given that this corrupt regime assassinated our leader, there is no way we can qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
One Post published on Truth Social in March, US President Donald Trump said the Iranian team would be “welcome” at the World Cup, but “I don’t believe it’s really appropriate for them to be there for their own lives and safety.”
However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Iran would “definitely come”.
“We hope that by then it will of course be a peaceful situation, and that will certainly help,” Infantino told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at CNBC’s Invest in America Forum in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. “But of course Iran also needs to come. They represent their own people. They are qualified. The players want to play.”
Infantino said that he recently visited the training camp in Antalya with the Iranian team and stated that the team wanted to play there.
“They should play, sports should be outside politics,” Infantino said. “Okay, we don’t live on the moon, we live on planet Earth, but if there’s no one else who believes in building bridges and keeping them strong and together, we do that.”
Iran is scheduled to play all three of its group stage matches in the United States: June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, June 21 against Belgium in Los Angeles, and June 26 against Egypt in Seattle. If Iran advances in the tournament, their future matches will likely be held in the United States.
The Iranian football federation had previously announced that it had requested from FIFA to move its team’s matches to Mexico, which will host the World Cup along with the USA and Canada. But this request denied.
The last time a national team withdrew from the FIFA World Cup was 1950, when more than one team did not participate in the first tournament held after World War II.
The 2026 World Cup faces two more big concerns from fans: the cost of tickets and the safety and security of the millions of international fans expected to attend.
Stating that there were more than 500 million ticket requests, Infantino said that there was an “unprecedented ticket demand”.
“Security is of course very important, very important, important,” he said. “Of course, you can always hear and read that there are bans, but the truth is that we have received ticket requests from all 211 countries. Everyone is coming and everyone wants to come.”
With 57 days until the start of the 2026 World Cup, Eisen asked Infantino what a successful tournament would look like.
“From a security perspective, having a successful World Cup, so no incidents, would mean a win. From a football perspective, there would be great matches, great games, excitement for people,” he said.
