Iran's soccer team is close to withdrawing from the 2026 World Cup
Taj said, “The U.S. attack on Iran, its integrity and flag will not go unanswered and will be taken into consideration by sports officials who will make the appropriate decision.” He added that the U.S. actions make it impossible to be optimistic about the Iranian national team’s ability to go to the Mundial.
In the lair of the enemy
Iran directly qualified for the final round of the World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Iran qualified in the same group with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. All three matches of the group stage were played in the United States. The first match – against New Zealand – is scheduled for June 16, the second – against Belgium – on June 21 (both at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles) and the final – against Egypt – on June 27 (at Lumen Field in Seattle).
In the event of reaching the 1/16 finals, Iran has the lot to play the United States. The teams can meet if they finish the group tournament in second place.
FIFA is following the development of the event
Mattias Grafström, secretary general of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), said that the organization to hold a safe championship with the participation of all national teams.
“It is premature to comment on the situation, we are following the development of the event. We are cooperating with the governments of the three host countries of the tournament, which assured us that the highest security measures will be taken and the participants have nothing to worry about,” said Grafström, whose words were quoted by the American TV channel ESPN.
What happens in case of an Iranian boycott?
The World Cup rules, updated by FIFA in 2025, state that “in the event of withdrawal and/or exclusion from the tournament of a participating national team, FIFA shall decide on the matter at its discretion and take any measures it deems necessary.” It also states that FIFA is authorized to decide on the replacement of a participating national team with another.
Iran directly qualified for the World Cup, while the UAE team failed to top the group and was eliminated at the subsequent stage. In case Iran does not participate in the World Cup, the Emirates will be the closest replacement. The Iraqi national team could also be a possible replacement if it loses in the intercontinental knockout matches against Bolivia or Suriname at the end of March.
Uncertainty in the Persian Gulf as a result of U.S. strikes means replacing Iran with the UAE or Iraq could be far from straightforward, and FIFA rules indicate the organization will do as it sees fit.
Unprecedented move
Never in the nearly 100-year history of the World Cup has there been a precedent for one of the participating national teams to announce a boycott for political reasons. Especially never before has a host country attacked a participating country just four months before the start of the tournament.
In the 1960s, 15 African national teams refused to participate in the Mundial in protest at the fact that FIFA had allocated them, along with teams from Asia and Oceania, just one slot for the tournament. The decision was considered deeply unfair there.
The premise was
This is not the first time Iran has announced the possibility of boycotting a major soccer tournament. After relations between the U.S. and Iran escalated last year, the Islamic Republic’s delegation ignored an invitation to the tournament draw held in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025.
Iran attributed the decision to the fact that U.S. authorities had not issued visas to all the delegation’s participants, including federation president Mehdi Taj. Iranian Football Federation spokesman Amir Mehdi Alavi said at the time that “the boycott was a forced measure in response to the actions of one of the host countries”.
Since then, the situation has only worsened. Earlier, athletes, national team members and their families were excluded from the list of people subject to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban, but the government, citing a threat to national security, is also authorized to decide on a complete ban on Iran from participating in competitions on its territory.
The U.S. decision was not influenced even by assurances from FIFA management that the Iranian delegation would not face visa-related problems. The president of the organization, Gianni Infantino, has repeatedly stated that no soccer team should be denied the right to participate in the World Cup for political reasons.
Before the 2022 World Cup, when rumors circulated about Iran’s possible withdrawal due to the country’s ban on women attending stadiums, Infantino stood up for the Islamic Republic ahead of the match against England (2:6).
You call all 18 million people living in Iran monsters? What do you say about the 60 million English people? Do you think we should exclude all of them?” – the FIFA president wondered at the time.
Something to look forward to
While there is no precedent for replacing any of the participants at the national team World Cup, there is a precedent from last year’s Club World Cup. Back then, Mexico’s Leon was eliminated from the tournament for violating multiple club ownership rules.
FIFA announced a knockout match between Los Angeles Galaxy (USA) and Club America (Mexico) to play for the vacated quota. The Los Angeles club won that match 2-1 in extra time and became the 32nd participant in the tournament.
A regular participant in recent years
Iran’s elimination from the World Cup will be even more high-profile due to the fact that the country’s national team has consistently qualified for the past three tournaments. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar, the Iranians failed to make it past the group stage, but the team is one of the strongest in Asia. In the previous two Asian Cup tournaments, the Iranians were bronze medalists in 2019 and 2023.
“Freezing” the championship
Iran’s top league matches are postponed due to the tense situation in the country. The national championship will not be resumed until a special order. Legionnaires playing in Iranian clubs are leaving the country. Thus, former Barcelona player Munir El-Haddadi, who moved to Tehran’s Esteghlal in 2025, managed to go to Turkey. He was accompanied on the 16-hour car trip by Spanish midfielder Ivan Sanchez of Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan. Esteghlal has another Spaniard in goalkeeper Antonio Adan, who played for Real from 2009-2013 and Atletico Madrid from 2018-2020.
The situation in the Middle East has heated up since the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28 a full-scale war against Iran. Many targets in Iran were attacked, and one of the strikes resulted in the assassination of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In response, Iran launched missile attacks on Israel and a number of countries in the Persian region.
