Iranian football had a good week on its troubled path to playing World Cup games in the United States in June.
A first face-to-face meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino since the US and Israel started a war against Iran on February 28 made genuine progress in football diplomacy at the end of a fraught month.
The Iranian football federation’s upbeat readout of the meeting in Turkiye made no mention of moving World Cup games to Mexico — a subject Infantino has repeatedly shut down for the past two weeks.
Infantino also offered tangible help for the squad to prepare for the World Cup in the next two months. Most Iran players are with clubs in the national league, which has shut down during the war.
Iran’s World Cup hosts in Arizona in the US said this week that they were pressing on with training-camp upgrades plus local and federal security plans – echoing the “stick to the schedule” mantra that FIFA has used.
Infantino stayed on in the Turkish coastal resort of Antalya to watch Iran rout Costa Rica 5-0 in a warm-up.
Clearly, the next two months are full of uncertainty for Iran’s team and for the nation itself amid mixed messages about US intentions for the war.
Still, talk of Iran boycotting football’s biggest event or seeking to move its games from Los Angeles and Seattle to Mexico has faded.
The Iranian delegation is due at its Tucson, Arizona training camp no later than June 10 for the June 11-July 19 tournament.
The war immediately cast doubt on Iran’s ability and willingness to fulfil a World Cup entry that it secured in March 2025 as one of the best teams in Asia.
In the first half of March, government officials variously suggested that the team could not play at the World Cup, that it could not travel to the US, and that FIFA should move Iran’s games to cohost Mexico.
A spokesman for the Iran Football Association did not respond on Thursday to a request for comment. Iran has not withdrawn its entry with FIFA.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared to suggest hosting Iran games was possible, without advocating for an unprecedented late change to the World Cup schedule.
US President Donald Trump added to the confusion with mixed messaging. He said, “I really don’t care” if Iran comes to the World Cup, then said that players were not safe, seeming to mean they were at risk from regime reprisals at home. He then went on to promise that the players would be treated like stars.
FIFA has been the most consistent commentator, and Infantino the only top soccer official openly talking about the delicate diplomacy: That Iran will come to the US, that the schedule will not change, and that no formal negotiations about Mexico had or would take place.
Iran, therefore, is on track to come to Arizona and start preparing for a first game on June 15 against New Zealand at the Los Angeles Rams’ SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. (AlJazeera)
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