{"id":539387,"date":"2026-03-14T06:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539387\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T06:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:16:10","slug":"iran-team-pushes-back-on-trumps-world-cup-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539387\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran team pushes back on Trump’s World Cup comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pushing back on US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments, Iran’s national football team says \u201cno one can exclude\u201d it from playing in the men’s World Cup in the United States.<\/p>\n

Instead, a post on the team’s official Instagram account suggested maybe the US team should be excluded after Trump indicated that the host country couldn’t guarantee the safety of the Iranian players.<\/p>\n

Trump wrote in a social media post Thursday that the Iranian team was welcome at the World Cup despite the ongoing war with Iran but that \u201cI really don\u2019t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Iran is set to play all three of its World Cup group games in the US, which is co-hosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n

The regional war has put doubt on Iran\u2019s ability to fulfil its World Cup entry, and sports minister Ahmad Donyamali told state TV this week the current circumstances meant it was not possible to play.<\/p>\n

But the Iran team\u2019s riposte on Instagram confirmed it still wants to participate, and pointed out that the tournament is run by FIFA \u2014 not Trump or the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is a historic and international event and its governing body is FIFA \u2014 not any individual, country,\u201d the post said. \u201cCertainly, no one can exclude Iran\u2019s national team from the World Cup; the only country that could be excluded is one that merely carries the title of \u2018host\u2019 yet lacks the ability to provide security for the teams participating in this global event.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Donald Trump warned the team against attending the World Cup.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Iran is scheduled to play in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, before finishing group play in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s mixed messages on the subject include saying last week \u201cI really don\u2019t care\u201d if Iran plays, then assuring FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the White House on Tuesday that Iran\u2019s team was welcome.<\/p>\n

Iran is a power in Asian football, ranked No. 20 in the world by FIFA and has qualified for its fourth straight World Cup edition.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s football federation has planned to use a tournament base camp in Arizona, at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson.<\/p>\n

Before the World Cup, Iranian officials are due to attend FIFA’s annual congress on April 30 in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

The Iranian federation was unable to attend meetings in Atlanta last week to help teams prepare for the 48-nation tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pushing back on US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments, Iran’s national football team says \u201cno one can exclude\u201d it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-539387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539387","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=539387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}