{"id":1775,"date":"2026-03-13T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/?p=1775"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:09:46","slug":"irans-world-cup-participation-a-headache-for-trump-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/irans-world-cup-participation-a-headache-for-trump-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa denies Iran&#8217;s request to move World Cup fixtures to Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Iran&#8217;s participation in the 2026 World Cup tournament continues to be a conundrum for world soccer body Fifa. The latest twist in the saga is an apparent request from the Iranian soccer body to move its fixtures to Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran\u2019s participation may not be appropriate due to security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Iranian National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don\u2019t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-1024x345.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-1024x345.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-300x101.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-768x259.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-150x51.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-696x234.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1-1068x360.jpeg 1068w, https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-13-at-10.41.10-1.jpeg 1179w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to Trump\u2019s statement, the Iranian national team earlier on their social media replied, \u201cThe World Cup is a historic and international event, and its governing body is FIFA, not any individual country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fifa said in response: \u201cFifa is in regular contact with all participating member associations, including IR Iran, to discuss planning for the Fifa&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/world-cup-2026\">World Cup 2026<\/a>. Fifa is looking forward to all participating teams competing as per the match schedule announced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several sources at Fifa pointed out that moving Iran\u2019s matches would inconvenience other countries and cause commercial problems because tickets have been sold and global broadcast schedules and sponsorship deals agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand are Iran\u2019s opponents in Group G. In another complicating factor Iran would meet the USA in the last 32 in Dallas if they finish as runners-up in their respective groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fifa is unlikely to make a final decision on Iran until its congress in Vancouver on 30 April, with its official position remaining that it wants them to take part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignleft is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">FIFA President Gianni Infantino: <br><br>&quot;This evening, I met with the President of the \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 United States, Donald J. Trump to discuss the status of preparations for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, and the growing excitement as we are set to kick off in just 93 days.<br>\u00a0<br>&quot;We also spoke about\u2026<\/p>&mdash; FIFA Media (@fifamedia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fifamedia\/status\/2031583523719586095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 11, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Iraq are the next highest-ranked Asian team not to have qualified so would appear to be in line to step in if they do not come through an interconfederation playoff against Bolivia or Suriname at the end of this month. The United Arab Emirates would be the most likely beneficiaries if Iraq do qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just 90 days ahead of the FIFA World Cup, U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran\u2019s participation may not be appropriate due to security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Iranian National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don\u2019t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to Trump\u2019s statement, the Iranian national team on their social media replied, \u201cThe World Cup is a historic and international event, and its governing body is FIFA, not any individual country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Cup is scheduled to kick off on 11th June until 19 July 2026 in Mexico City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran&#8217;s participation in the 2026 World Cup tournament continues to be a conundrum for world soccer body Fifa. The latest twist in the saga is an apparent request from the Iranian soccer body to move its fixtures to Mexico. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran\u2019s participation may not be appropriate due to security concerns. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,168],"tags":[269,271,272,264,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-1775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-secondary-story","8":"category-world","9":"tag-fifa","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-gianni-infantino","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-trump"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}