FIFA chief Gianni Infantino has said Iran will play their World Cup matches, leading to agreement from US President.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 30 Apr 2026<\/span>30 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n US President \u2060Donald Trump has told reporters \u2060that \u201cI\u2019m OK\u201d with Iran playing in the upcoming football World Cup, \u200cwhich will be held in North America in June and July.<\/p>\n The comments come after FIFA President \u2060Gianni Infantino on \u2060Thursday said Iran would be present at the \u2060tournament and would play in \u2060the US.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cIf Gianni said it, I\u2019m OK,\u201d Trump told reporters \u200cin the Oval Office.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know what? Let \u200cthem \u200cplay.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier on Thursday, Infantino began his address to delegates at the 76th FIFA congress by reiterating that Iran would play their World Cup games in the US as scheduled.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s participation at this year\u2019s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States has been shrouded in uncertainty since the eruption of the US-Israel war on Iran in February.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me start by the outset, confirming straightaway that of course Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026,\u201d Infantino said at the scheduled meeting of football\u2019s power-brokers in Vancouver.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd of course, Iran will play [in] the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n Iranian officials had floated the idea of shifting their group games from the United States to Mexico, but that proposal had already been nixed by Infantino.<\/p>\n Tensions surrounding Iran\u2019s World Cup participation rumbled into the build-up to Thursday\u2019s summit.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s delegation was the only absentee from the 211-member congress as Thursday\u2019s meeting got under way after a clash with Canadian border officials earlier this week.<\/p>\n Officials from the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) abruptly left Canada after landing in Toronto, abandoning their onward trip to Vancouver.<\/p>\n Iranian media said FFIRI President Mehdi Taj \u2013 a former member of Tehran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) \u2013 and two colleagues flew home after being \u201cinsulted\u201d by Canadian immigration officers.<\/p>\n Canada, which designated the IRGC a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d in 2024, said Wednesday that individuals linked to the force were \u201cinadmissible.\u201d<\/p>\n Iran, who are due to be based in Tucson, Arizona, during the World Cup, face New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in Group G.<\/p>\n The Iranians open their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n FIFA chief Gianni Infantino has said Iran will play their World Cup matches, leading to agreement from US President. Published On 30 Apr 202630 Apr 2026 US President \u2060Donald Trump has told reporters \u2060that \u201cI\u2019m OK\u201d with Iran playing in the upcoming football World Cup, \u200cwhich will be held in North America in June and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21040","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\/21040","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=21040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PXL_20210627_155635971-1-1696493612.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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