Mexican President Sheinbaum says FIFA will not relocate Iran\u2019s fixtures from US despite repeated requests.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 12 Apr 2026<\/span>12 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n FIFA has turned down Iran\u2019s request to relocate its World Cup matches from the United States to Mexico, citing logistical impediments, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirms.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Football Federation (FFIRI) asked the sport\u2019s global governing body to move its games out of the US last month, but FIFA said all World Cup fixtures will go ahead as scheduled, dismissing the possibility of Mexico hosting the Iranian team.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Sheinbaum reiterated FIFA\u2019s stance on Friday, saying the matches will be played in the US as planned.<\/p>\n \u201cFIFA ultimately decided that the matches cannot be moved from their original venues,\u201d Sheinbaum said at a news conference in Mexico City.<\/p>\n \u201cIt [relocation] would make logistics too complicated, and this decision was taken by FIFA,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n FIFA did not respond to Al Jazeera\u2019s request for comment on confirmation of host venues for Iran\u2019s games.<\/p>\n The US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and\u00a0168 people at a girls school on the first day.<\/p>\n Tehran responded by striking Israeli and US military bases in the Middle East with missiles and drones.<\/p>\n A Pakistan-mediated ceasefire brought the attacks to a halt on Wednesday in Iran and the Gulf, but Israel has continued to pound parts of Lebanon.<\/p>\n Iran was among the first countries to qualify for the World Cup, racing to book their spot from the Asian confederation.<\/p>\n Team Melli are in Group G of the tournament with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand and are scheduled to play all of their group games on the US West Coast, two in Los Angeles (June 15 and 21) and one in Seattle (June 26).<\/p>\n Mexico, which is cohosting the World Cup with the US and Canada, had shown willingness to host Iran\u2019s fixtures, but Sheinbaum\u2019s recent comments have reaffirmed the stance of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who met Iranian football players, coaches and officials in Turkiye on March 31.<\/p>\n \u201cThe matches will be played where they are supposed to be, according to the draw,\u201d Infantino said on the sidelines of Iran\u2019s friendly match against Costa Rica.<\/p>\n Infantino also quelled concerns that Iran would not feature at the next edition of the World Cup at all after FFIRI President Mehdi Taj said Iran would \u201cboycott\u201d the games in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cIran will be at the World Cup. \u2026 That\u2019s why we\u2019re here,\u201d Infantino said in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen the team, I\u2019ve spoken to the players and the coach, so everything is fine,\u201d added Infantino, whose attendance at the friendly was unannounced.<\/p>\n Last month, the FFIRI expressed fears over its players\u2019 safety and security in the US after President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that it would not be appropriate for Iran to participate in the World Cup \u201cfor their own life and safety\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Trump has \u2060explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to \u2060America,\u201d Taj said in response to Trump.<\/p>\n Both countries have since exchanged indirect verbal blows on the issue with the latest comments coming from Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali, who indicated that his country\u2019s participation in the World Cup will be uncertain unless FIFA relocates its fixtures.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mexican President Sheinbaum says FIFA will not relocate Iran\u2019s fixtures from US despite repeated requests. Published On 12 Apr 202612 Apr 2026 FIFA has turned down Iran\u2019s request to relocate its World Cup matches from the United States to Mexico, citing logistical impediments, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirms. Iran\u2019s Football Federation (FFIRI) asked the sport\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18670","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=18670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG-20250912-WA0000-1757829229.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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