![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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The men\u2019s World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, but Iran is scheduled to play all three group games in the United States, two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Its participation has been in out doubt since the United States and Israel started their attacks on Iran which launched reprisals.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, at the Women\u2019s Asian Cup in Australia, players from Iran\u2019s team claimed asylum.<\/p>\n
Five players, including captain Zahra Ghanbari, slipped away from the team hotel under the cover of darkness to claim sanctuary from Australian officials, the Australian government announced.<\/p>\n
At least two more team members applied to stay later in the day, according to local media.<\/p>\n
Some of the players had been branded \u201cwartime traitors\u201d by Iranian state television after remaining silent during the national anthem before their opening loss to South Korea.<\/p>\n
Every player saluted and sang the anthem before the next two group games. Iran lost both those matches and were eliminated after a defeat to Philippines on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Taj said the players had done their part during the anthem.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur women\u2019s national team sang the national anthem and gave the military salute,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He blamed US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US president himself… tweeted two tweets about a women\u2019s team (saying) \u2018we welcome them and that they should become refugees\u2019.\u201d \u201cHe threatened Australia that \u2018if you don\u2019t grant them asylum, I will give them asylum in the US\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could one be optimistic about the World Cup that is supposed to be held in America?\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran’s players salute during the national anthem before the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 football match between Iran and Philippines.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Trump weighs in on Iranian women’s team | 03:29<\/p>\n
– \u2018Taken hostage\u2019 –<\/p>\n
Taj claimed the five women players had been kidnapped and the team had been obstructed as it tried to leave Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the game, unfortunately, the Australian police came and intervened, removing one or two of the players from the hotel, according to the news we have.\u201d <\/p>\n
He made reference to an alleged air strike on a school in Minab at the start of the war which Iran has blamed on Israel and the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey martyred our girls in Minab, 160 of them, and in this incident they are taking our girls hostage,\u201d Taj said \u201cThey did a terrible thing. Last night, some people came and lay down in front of the car they were driving to the airport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Crowds had gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium for the game against Philippines banging drums and shouting \u201cregime change for Iran\u201d, an AFP reporter saw.<\/p>\n
Supporters surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting \u201clet them go\u201d and \u201csave our girls\u201d.<\/p>\n
Taj said that at the airport the squad had trouble boarding their flight. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey completely blocked them at the gate and told everyone to become refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the Iranian Football Federation on Tuesday cast further doubt on his country\u2019s participation in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[2620,2095,221784,1724,64,63,689,485,2065,2791,2490,9239,596,6234,6246,13774,264093,2485,264095,264099,5575,264096,188273,264091,174230,6897,481,2184,264100,98091,11326,2041,2067,677,277,701,5142,264090,5813,2812,12540,85,68089,130245,64514,264097,2614,264092,12000,264098,264094],"class_list":["post-531870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-anthony-stephen-tony-burke","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-central-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-eastern-asia","tag-football","tag-football-match","tag-football-news","tag-football-team","tag-girls-hostage","tag-gold-coast","tag-group-games","tag-hormozgan","tag-iran","tag-iranian-football","tag-iranian-state-television","tag-iranian-team-bus","tag-iranian-women","tag-israel","tag-los-angeles","tag-mexico","tag-minab","tag-national-anthem","tag-national-team","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-philippines","tag-queensland","tag-seattle","tag-soccer-team","tag-south-korea","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-southern-asia","tag-sports","tag-state-of-washington","tag-team-hotel","tag-team-members","tag-team-pose","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-wartime-traitors","tag-western-asia","tag-women-players","tag-zahra-ghanbari"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}