{"id":2027,"date":"2025-12-09T20:48:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2027"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:42:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:42:29","slug":"iran-to-play-at-least-one-world-cup-game-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2027","title":{"rendered":"Iran to play at least one World Cup game in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Iran will play at least one of its World Cup matches in the United States though the tournament draw on Friday avoided a group-stage clash between the geopolitical rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Iranian team, representing a country targeted by U.S. airstrikes in June and whose citizens are subject to a travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, will open its World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Seattle or Inglewood, California, on June 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Asake - Lonely At The Top (Official Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bbVZo4Yw7pI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s next two games could be played across the Canadian border in Vancouver or in Inglewood and Seattle. FIFA will confirm the detailed game schedule Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States was drawn to play Australia, Paraguay and a third team to be determined in the European playoffs in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s participation in the tournament, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has already presented diplomatic challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week Iran said it would boycott the draw after several officials including soccer federation president Mehdi Taj and general secretary Hedayat Momebeni were denied U.S. travel visas. The federation later modified its stance saying Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei would attend the event at the Kennedy Center in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t immediately clear whether Ghalenoei was present at Friday&#8217;s draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran was among 12 countries subject to a travel ban ordered by Trump\u2019s administration on June 5. A second World Cup nation, Haiti, also is on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exemptions were promised for teams and support staff traveling for the World Cup, but not for fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trump administration called Iran a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism\u201d and barred visitors except for those already holding visas or coming special visas issued for minorities facing persecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later in June, Trump ordered a bombardment of Iran by so-called \u201cbunker buster\u201d bombs and cruise missiles targeting underground uranium enrichment plants. Within days he declared a ceasefire in a 12-day war between U.S. ally Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran is an established force in soccer, ranked No. 20 in the world by FIFA and second only to Japan among Asian national teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Team Melli, as the squad is popularly known, is preparing to play at its seventh World Cup. Its best known player is forward Mehdi Taremi, who has played for Inter Milan, Porto and now Olympiakos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s most problematic diplomatic relations among its future World Cup opponents are with Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their diplomatic ties were severed in 1979 after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and remained strained until recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s government condemned the death in September 2022 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country\u2019s morality police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amini\u2019s death just a few weeks before the last World Cup played in nearby Qatar brought domestic politics into the stadiums where Iran played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team refused to sign Iran\u2019s national anthem before its opening game in Doha against England, and there were clashes between fans and pro-government supporters at its second game against Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many fans displayed the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d slogan to protest the government before Iran&#8217;s World Cup campaign ended with a 1-0 loss to the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/sports\/iran-to-play-at-least-one-world-cup-game-on-u.s.-soil\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran will play at least one of its World Cup matches in the United States though the tournament draw on Friday avoided a group-stage clash between the geopolitical rivals. The Iranian team, representing a country targeted by U.S. airstrikes in June and whose citizens are subject to a travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[419,2425,55,433,899,57],"class_list":["post-2027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-amir-ghalenoei","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-new-zealand","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iran to play at least one World Cup game in U.S. - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Iran will play at least one of its World Cup matches in the United States though the tournament draw on Friday avo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=2027\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran to play at least one World Cup game in U.S. - 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