{"id":511469,"date":"2026-06-26T03:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/511469\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T03:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:43:10","slug":"fifa-confirms-rainbow-flags-to-be-allowed-at-egypt-v-iran-world-cup-pride-match-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/511469\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa confirms rainbow flags to be allowed at Egypt v Iran World Cup \u2018Pride Match\u2019 | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran and Egypt attempted to sidestep questions about their reluctance to take part in the designated \u201cPride Match\u201d<\/a> celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in Seattle, as Fifa confirmed it will permit rainbow flags to be displayed inside the stadium. Fifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantino, has been at pains to make clear planned festivities are being arranged by Seattle\u2019s organising committee to coincide with the annual Pride weekend and that they have \u201cnothing to do with the match itself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both Iran<\/a> and Egypt lodged complaints to Fifa about the LGBTQ+ events staged around the game and requested for them to be cancelled. In Iran, LGBTQ+ relationships are illegal, and Egypt has a history of prosecuting queer and trans people. Iran\u2019s pre-match press conference began with a statement from their federation requesting all questions were in relation to the team, tactics and the match. Iran\u2019s head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, said he did not wish to speak about \u201canything that is banned in our league\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll our thoughts are focused on football, the beautiful game, our people, our success,\u201d Ghalenoei said. \u201cWe are going to be positive, we are not going to think about any other issues. We seek to bring joy to our people. When the game starts, all of our focus is going to be on the pitch, we\u2019re not going to be thinking about what\u2019s going to be going on off the pitch. The game is going to be exciting, arduous and our focus has to be on football and nothing else \u2026 We are only going to speak about football.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Egypt head coach, Hossam Hassan, echoed the sentiment by saying: \u201cWe are all focused on football, it is all we think about and Fifa is of course taking care of the organisational side. We are concerned with football on the pitch. We respect the rules of respect and fair play that are there for everyone to abide by and any guidelines set by Fifa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran previously complained about feeling like the \u201cmost oppressed\u201d<\/a> team at the tournament but, unlike their previous two Group G matches, they arrived in Seattle two days before the match. Ghalenoei said the team have been \u201cdeprived\u201d of their rights by being told when they can arrive and depart a host city and he suggested Infantino was blind-sided by the restrictions imposed on the team by the US administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Infantino and Fifa did do their utmost to listen to the problems but we weren\u2019t encouraged,\u201d Ghalenoei said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t give us any bonuses or anything. I know for the past six months Mr Infantino has tried really hard to minimise the challenges we were facing and what happened was not something that Mr Infantino expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe World Cup \u2018Pride Match\u2019 Iran and Egypt tried to stop – video<\/p>\n

In a statement Infantino distanced Fifa from the Pride celebrations. \u201cFirst of all, I must clarify that there will be no \u2018Pride Match\u2019 at the World Cup<\/a>,\u201d Infantino said. \u201cThere will be a Fifa World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organised by external organisations will be taking place in the city. But that has nothing to do with the match itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Fifa spokesperson added: \u201cGeneral statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the Fifa World Cup 2026<\/a> stadium code of conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran and Egypt attempted to sidestep questions about their reluctance to take part in the designated \u201cPride Match\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-511469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511469","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=511469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}