{"id":533792,"date":"2026-03-11T17:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533792\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T17:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:56:08","slug":"iran-cannot-participate-in-the-fifa-world-cup-sports-minister-says-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533792\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran cannot participate in the FIFA World Cup, sports minister says | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran says \u2018under no circumstances\u2019 will it participate following the US-Israeli attacks that killed its supreme leader.<\/p>\n

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Published On 11 Mar 202611 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

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Iran \u2060cannot \u2060participate in the FIFA World \u2060Cup after the \u2060United States killed<\/a> its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, \u200csays the country\u2019s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering that this corrupt \u2060regime [the US] has \u2060assassinated our leader, under no circumstances \u2060can we \u2060participate in \u2060the World Cup,\u201d the minister told \u200cstate television on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The US will co-host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico, but all of Iran\u2019s group-stage fixtures are allocated to American cities, including Los Angeles and Seattle.<\/p>\n

The US and Israeli war on Iran<\/a>, which began on February 28, has killed 1,255 people and wounded more than 12,000.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cOur children are not safe and, fundamentally, such conditions for participation do not exist,\u201d Donyamali said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the malicious actions \u2060they have carried out against Iran, \u2060they have forced two wars on us over eight or nine months and have killed and martyred thousands of our people. Therefore, we \u2060certainly cannot have such a presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the first time an official from the Iranian government has spoken on the country\u2019s participation in the global tournament since the US and Israel launched their attacks on the nation on February 28.<\/p>\n

The head of the Iranian Football Federation cast doubt<\/a> on his team\u2019s participation last week, but did not say the team would boycott the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this attack [on Iran], we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,\u201d Mehdi Taj, president of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI), said on March 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the World Cup is like this, who in their right mind would send their national team to a place like this?\u201d Taj asked on Iranian state television.<\/p>\n

Earlier, FIFA President Gianni Infantino \u200csaid Iran\u2019s participation in the World Cup would be welcomed<\/a> by US President Donald Trump, with whom he met and discussed the upcoming tournament amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

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

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

\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

Iran was the first country to secure qualification for the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran says \u2018under no circumstances\u2019 will it participate following the US-Israeli attacks that killed its supreme leader. Listen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,5575,12241,44,588,85,1055,6075,262188,124617],"class_list":{"0":"post-533792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-middle-east","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us-canada","18":"tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","19":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533792","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=533792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}