{"id":337074,"date":"2026-03-13T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337074\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:59:09","slug":"will-iran-play-at-the-2026-world-cup-explaining-the-state-of-play-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337074\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Iran play at the 2026 World Cup? Explaining the state of play | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s participation in this summer\u2019s World Cup appears to change on an almost hourly basis. US president Donald Trump caused more confusion on Thursday by saying he did not believe it \u201cis appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The incendiary post on Truth Social came less than 48 hours after Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino<\/a>, said Trump had told him in a meeting at the White House on Tuesday evening that Iran would be \u201cwelcome\u201d at the World Cup. Hours later, Iran\u2019s football federation posted its response on Instagram, stating: \u201cNo one can exclude Iran\u2019s national team from the World Cup\u201d and going on to say that the US should be removed as host due to Trump\u2019s implicit threat.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Iran\u2019s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, told state media that his country would not take part<\/a>. \u201cUnder no circumstances do we have the appropriate conditions to participate in the World Cup,\u201d Donyamali said.<\/p>\n

So what is really going on, and when will the saga be resolved?<\/p>\n

Could Fifa remove Iran?<\/p>\n

There is no modern-day precedent for a team withdrawing or being removed from a World Cup. The closest parallel is the 1992 European Championship, when Uefa replaced Yugoslavia 10 days before the tournament in Sweden after the United Nations imposed sanctions due to the war in the Balkans. Their replacements, Denmark, famously went on to win Euro 92 after the players were summoned from their summer holidays.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources at Fifa have told the Guardian that no decision on Iran\u2019s World Cup involvement has been made, with the world governing body giving itself until its annual Congress in Vancouver on 30 April to reach a conclusion.<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s official position remains that it wants Iran to take part, with its general secretary, Mattias Grafstr\u00f6m, saying last week that \u201cour focus is to have a safe World Cup with everybody participating\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s statutes strictly mandate political and religious neutrality, so it will do everything it can to avoid an Iranian withdrawal, and will certainly not want to be seen to have played a role in forcing them out, despite Infantino\u2019s desire to stay close to Trump.<\/p>\n

Fifa did ban Iran from taking part in the Asian qualifying competition for the 1986 World Cup after they refused to play home matches on neutral territory, which was a punishment for their refusal to play against Kuwait in qualifiers for the 1982 tournament.<\/p>\n

Could Iran withdraw and would there be consequences?<\/p>\n

There was a seemingly significant softening of Iran\u2019s stance before Trump waded into the debate again on Thursday, with multiple publications among the country\u2019s state media reporting that no decision to withdraw had been made, and even expressing surprise at Donyamali\u2019s comments. Although Donyamali\u2019s views carry weight as a minister, the ultimate decision will be made at a higher level of government.<\/p>\n

Under Fifa statutes, member associations are not permitted to withdraw from its competitions, and Iran would face disciplinary sanctions<\/a> if they did so. No country has pulled out of the World Cup after the draw was made since France and India did not take part in 1950, citing travel costs.<\/p>\n

Fifa has protections in its tournament rules, which sources have told the Guardian would be upheld. The regulations state that withdrawing before the tournament incurs a fine of between \u20ac275,000 and \u20ac555,000 ($316,000-$640,000), depending on the date of the withdrawal. It would also trigger a referral to Fifa\u2019s disciplinary committee, which could impose sporting sanctions, including a ban from tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fifa disciplinary committee may impose additional disciplinary measures, taking into account in particular the timing of the withdrawal or exclusion, the seriousness of the infringement that led to the inadmission or exclusion, possible mitigating factors and any other relevant circumstances,\u201d the regulations state. \u201cThese disciplinary sanctions may include the exclusion of the association concerned from a future Fifa competition or the replacement of that association by another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who could replace Iran if they are no longer in the competition?<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s World Cup regulations are vague on replacing a team that have qualified for the finals, stating only that it has \u201csole discretion\u201d to \u201ctake whatever action is deemed necessary\u201d, and that it \u201cmay decide to replace the participating member association in question with another association\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are viewed as the most likely beneficiaries<\/a> should Iran withdraw because they are the next highest-ranked teams from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) not to have qualified, but any swap would likely not be straightforward.<\/p>\n

Iran secured their World Cup place by winning Group A of the third round of AFC qualifying, with the UAE losing a playoff against Iraq, whose reward was a place in an intercontinental playoff on 31 March against Bolivia or Suriname in Monterrey, from which the winners will reach the finals.<\/p>\n

As revealed by the Guardian last weekend, however, Iraq have asked Fifa to postpone<\/a> that game because most of their squad are stranded in Baghdad with airspace closed due to the war.<\/p>\n

Replacing Iran with Iraq may appear an obvious solution but would have political ramifications. The UAE, a close strategic ally of the US and an economic powerhouse, are also believed to be lobbying Fifa to be awarded Iran\u2019s place should it become available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s participation in this summer\u2019s World Cup appears to change on an almost hourly basis. US president Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-337074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}