This is an unprecedented situation, as a host nation has never been at war with another World Cup participant.<\/p>\n
By all means, vet the team and protect the U.S. against risk. Prevent, as Rubio describes, those unaffiliated with the team from \u201cembedding\u201d with the program. Weed out risk. Toughen up security. The last thing any of us wants is a catastrophic terror event.<\/p>\n
Iran, for its part, must cooperate fully with security screening and refrain from using its World Cup delegation as a vehicle for officials or operatives who have no legitimate role in the tournament.<\/p>\n
Still, the Iranian men\u2019s team is not here, even as other teams have arrived in the U.S. to prepare to compete. It would be a terrible shame if Iran\u2019s elite athletes are prevented from participating in the World Cup for which they qualified.<\/p>\n
Military service is mandatory for almost all young men in Iran upon turning 18, and that affects the national team. For example, team captain Mehdi Taremi, a star striker, is among those who have completed their mandatory service \u2014 with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Therein lies the biggest pushback, as the IRGC is classified<\/a> by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t help that Mehdi Taj, who has long served as president of Iran\u2019s soccer federation, is a former IRGC commander. Canada in April denied entry to Taj ahead of the FIFA Congress in Vancouver.<\/p>\n Nobody denies the IRGC is linked to a long list of vile actions the world over. But a young man who completed mandatory military service years ago is not the same thing as an active IRGC commander, intelligence operative or terrorist.<\/p>\n These are difficult times, and while Americans largely feel insulated from the horrors of war playing out abroad, peace in the homeland should not be taken for granted.<\/p>\n And yet nothing publicly reported suggests the Iranian men\u2019s soccer roster itself poses a threat.<\/p>\n Our hope is that these young men, who have worked for so long to achieve this dream, don\u2019t have to watch it evaporate. They need to arrive here by June 14 if they hope to compete.<\/p>\n We watched in admiration as the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team stood in subtle defiance of their country\u2019s authoritarian government during the women\u2019s Asian Cup in Australia in March, witnessing the incredible bravery it took to stand up to a regime that tends to address acts of protest with violence. Many observers interpreted the team\u2019s decision not to sing the national anthem before its opening match as an act of quiet dissent, and advocates warned that some players could face repercussions upon returning home.<\/p>\n We stood with the Iranian footballers then, and we now support the men\u2019s right to play in a tournament for which they qualified.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us, we\u2019re always wishing peace for all of the people all around the world,\u201d player Saeid Ezatolahi told the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cI hope that these things will end soon and all of the people around the world can be in peace and live together.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t we all.<\/p>\n The United States can protect its security without abandoning the spirit of international competition. Vet every visa application. Exclude anyone who presents a genuine threat. But if these players qualify, clear the security checks and meet the requirements, they should be allowed to take the field.<\/p>\n Leaders wage war, not athletes.<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iranian men\u2019s soccer team has qualified for the World Cup. Their first match is against New Zealand,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,7183,399,801,228242,3,403,21,19,22,20,25,24,70983,84938],"class_list":["post-685857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-visas","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ctc-l-iran-soccer-2.jpg\")
People on motorbikes ride past a billboard supporting Iran’s national soccer team for the 2026 World Cup, on a building in Tehran on May 18, 2026. (Getty-AFP)<\/p>\n