{"id":14663,"date":"2026-03-11T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=14663"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:43:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:43:01","slug":"iran-welcome-to-compete-in-fifa-world-cup-trump-tells-infantino-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=14663","title":{"rendered":"Iran welcome to compete in FIFA World Cup, Trump tells Infantino | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><button class=\"article-listen-container\" aria-labelledby=\"listen-text listen-duration\" data-testid=\"listen-to-article-button\"><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-listen-container__text\" data-testid=\"listen-to-article-text\">Listen to this article<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"article-listen-container__duration\">4 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/button><button tabindex=\"0\" class=\"tooltip-accessible_trigger\"><svg class=\"icon icon--info icon--main-grey-dark icon--16 listen-to-article-tooltip__icon\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\"><title>info<\/title><path class=\"icon-main-color\" d=\"M12 0a12 12 0 1 0 0 24 12 12 0 0 0 0-24Zm-.226 3.225a2.039 2.039 0 0 1 2.155 1.924v.193a1.998 1.998 0 0 1-2.155 2.149 2.029 2.029 0 0 1-2.146-2.15 2.039 2.039 0 0 1 1.955-2.122h.193l-.002.006Zm3.227 15.525a.75.75 0 0 1-.752.75H9.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.75h.748V12h-.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.751h3a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.752v6.75h.75a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.749L15 18.75Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>FIFA President Gianni Infantino \u200csays Iran\u2019s participation in the World Cup would be welcomed by United States President Donald Trump, with whom he met and discussed the upcoming tournament amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Infantino said on Wednesday that Trump \u201creiterated that the Iranian team is welcome to compete in the tournament\u201d, which is being cohosted by the US, Mexico and Canada in June and July.<\/p>\n<p>During a meeting to discuss preparations for the competition, \u201cwe also spoke about the current situation in Iran,\u201d Infantino, the head of world football\u2019s governing body, wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>All of Iran\u2019s group games are scheduled to take place in the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to \u2060bring people together now more than ever, and I \u2060sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World,\u201d Infantino said.<\/p>\n<p>The comments marked the first time that Infantino, who in December created a FIFA peace prize and awarded it to Trump, has acknowledged the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The attacks have killed 1,255 people and wounded more than 12,000 in Iran in the first 12 days of the war.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel, several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate and at infrastructure in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Iran was \u2060the only nation missing from a FIFA planning summit for World Cup participants held last week in Atlanta, Georgia, deepening questions over whether the country\u2019s football team \u2060would compete on US soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.<\/p>\n<p>Trump told the online news magazine Politico that he is not concerned about Iran\u2019s participation because it is a \u201cvery badly defeated country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>If the US refuses to host the Iran team, it could risk being removed as a World Cup host by FIFA.<\/p>\n<p>That is what happened to Indonesia three years ago when the country refused to welcome Israel for the men\u2019s Under-20 World Cup eight months after the Israeli team qualified. FIFA dropped Indonesia just weeks before the scheduled first game and moved that tournament to Argentina.<\/p>\n<p>The head of the Iranian Football Federation cast doubt on his team\u2019s participation in the sporting extravaganza after the defection this week of several Iranian female footballers during the Asian Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the World Cup is like this, who in their right mind would send their national team to a place like this?\u201d Mehdi Taj asked on Iranian state television.<\/p>\n<p>Fans from Iran were already banned from entering the US in the first iteration of a travel ban announced by the Trump administration in December.<\/p>\n<p>Iran are scheduled to play two of their World Cup group games in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>If both the US and \u200cIran \u200cfinish second in their respective groups, the two countries could meet in a July 3 elimination match in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Should Iran withdraw from the sport\u2019s quadrennial showpiece, it would be the first time a country did that since France and India pulled out of the 1950 finals in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>This week, FIFA\u2019s World Cup chief operating officer said the tournament is \u201ctoo big\u201d to be postponed because of the global turmoil caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Heimo Schirgi said FIFA continues to closely monitor the Iran war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe basically take it day by day, and at some stage, we will have a resolution,\u201d Schirgi said. \u201cAnd the World Cup will go on obviously, right? The World Cup is too big, and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a04 mins info FIFA President Gianni Infantino \u200csays Iran\u2019s participation in the World Cup would be welcomed by United States President Donald Trump, with whom he met and discussed the upcoming tournament amid the ongoing war in the Middle East. Infantino said on Wednesday that Trump \u201creiterated that the Iranian team is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}