![\"Sardar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2025-03-20T172509Z_931437870_RC25HDA4LCF1_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-WORLDCUP-IRN-ARE-REPORT-1773981033.jpg\")
Iran forward Sardar Azmoun scores a goal during the World Cup AFC qualifiers against the UAE at the Azadi Sports Complex, Tehran, Iran, on March 20, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour\/West Asia News Agency via Reuters]Pictures removed<\/p>\nReports say Sardar Azmoun, who plays for UAE club Shabab Al-Ahli, was expelled for Instagram post with Dubai\u2019s \u200cruler.<\/p>\n
Published On 20 Mar 202620 Mar 2026<\/p>\n
Sardar Azmoun, one of \u2060Iran\u2019s top football players, has \u2060been expelled from the national team for a perceived act of disloyalty to the government, Iranian media has reported, making it unlikely he will play any part in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s participation in the global football showpiece is under a cloud because of the ongoing conflict with the United States, who are co-hosting the June 11-July 19 tournament with Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n
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If Team Melli do turn up for their opening-round group matches, they will \u2060undoubtedly be weakened by the absence of striker Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals since making his debut as a teenager in 2014.<\/p>\n
Azmoun, who plays his club football in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Dubai club Shabab Al-Ahli, upset the Iranian authorities this week by posting a picture on his Instagram feed of a meeting with Dubai\u2019s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.<\/p>\n
Iran has launched rocket \u200cand drone attacks on the UAE following air strikes by the US and Israel, which killed the country\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
A report on the Fars News Agency, which has links to the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, cited \u201can informed source within the national team\u201d as saying Azmoun had been expelled from the squad.<\/p>\n
Iran forward Sardar Azmoun scores a goal during the World Cup AFC qualifiers against the UAE at the Azadi Sports Complex, Tehran, Iran, on March 20, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour\/West Asia News Agency via Reuters]Pictures removed<\/p>\n
Azmoun later removed the pictures but was still lambasted on state TV on Thursday, with football pundit Mohammad Misaghi saying the striker\u2019s actions had been an act of disloyalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that you don\u2019t have enough sense to understand what kind of behaviour is appropriate \u2060at a given time,\u201d Misaghi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not mince words with such people. They should be \u2060told that they are not worthy of wearing the national team jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no patience for this sulking and childish behaviour. National team players should be people who proudly belt out the national anthem and deserve to wear the Iran jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no immediate response to a request for comment on \u2060the matter from the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI).<\/p>\n
Azmoun, 31, is one of the best-known footballers in Iran, where the game is a national obsession.<\/p>\n
He has played his \u2060entire club career abroad with stints at Zenit Saint Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen and \u2060Roma, as well as featuring for Iran in the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.<\/p>\n
An unsourced report on the Novad News channel said on Thursday that an order had been issued for the seizure of the assets of Azmoun, another UAE-based national team forward Mehdi Ghayedi, and former international Soroush Rafiei.<\/p>\n
Misaghi was speaking against \u200cthe backdrop of pictures of a ceremony welcoming the Iranian women\u2019s national team back to Tehran on their return from Australia.<\/p>\n
Seven of the delegation accepted asylum in Australia after the team was branded \u201cwartime traitors\u201d on Iranian state TV for not singing the \u200cnational \u200canthem before a Women\u2019s Asian Cup match. Five later decided to return to Iran.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s men are scheduled to play friendly internationals in Antalya, Turkiye, against Nigeria on March 27 and Costa Rica four days later as part of their World Cup preparations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports say Sardar Azmoun, who plays for UAE club Shabab Al-Ahli, was expelled for Instagram post with Dubai\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,527,5897,1259,44,561,457,82,206083,13010],"class_list":["post-548404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}