Will Iran take part in the 2026 World Cup?

PARIS – The war in the Middle East triggered by the United States and Israeli strikes on Iran has raised the question of whether the Iran national team will take part in the 2026 World Cup, where they are due to play group games in the US.

What is Iran’s position?

The possibility of a boycott of the World Cup has been raised in Iran.

Within hours of the joint US-Israeli strikes beginning on Feb 28, Iran football federation president Mehdi Taj told Iranian television: “What is certain at the present time is that with this attack and this cruelty, we cannot look forward to the World Cup with hope.”

Taj also announced that the Iranian domestic league had been suspended.

“Team Melli”, as the Iran national team are known, secured qualification in March 2025 for a seventh World Cup, and a fourth in a row.

Iran have been drawn in Group G with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand and are due to play two games in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.

A large Iranian diaspora has lived in Los Angeles since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. A large part of that diaspora backed the Pahlavi dynasty which was overthrown in the revolution.

What is FIFA’s position?

World football’s governing body is remaining cautious regarding the possibility of Iran pulling out of the World Cup.

“We had a meeting... and it is premature to comment in detail, but we will monitor developments around all issues around the world,” FIFA secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom said on Feb 28.

A source close to FIFA said no discussions had yet taken place with the Iran football federation regarding a possible withdrawal of the team from the tournament.

March 3 marked exactly 100 days to the tournament’s opening game and the situation in Iran could become acutely uncomfortable for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who has been keen to show that he has a close relationship with US President Donald Trump.

Mr Trump said on March 3 that he did not care whether Iran participated in the World Cup.

“I really don’t care. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes,” he told Politico.

All the more so as other countries in the Gulf who are due to take part in the World Cup have been drawn into the war, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan all being targeted by retaliatory Iranian strikes.

What do FIFA’s rules say?

FIFA’s regulations do not provide for the possibility of a boycott of the World Cup by a qualified team. A source close to world football’s governing body said “specific decisions” would have to be taken to replace Iran with another team if necessary.

Article 6 of the regulations for the 2026 World Cup says that “if a participating member association withdraws... as a result of force majeure”, FIFA “shall decide on the matter at its sole discretion and take whatever action is deemed necessary”.

If a team withdraw or are excluded from the competition, FIFA therefore has the freedom to take whatever decision it sees fit and “may decide to replace the participating member association in question with another association”.

It would seem logical that an eventual absence of Iran from the competition would open the way for another team to take their place.

Currently, eight Asian sides have qualified for the first World Cup to feature 48 teams in total.

There could yet be a ninth Asian team, if Iraq win an intercontinental play-off against either Bolivia or Suriname, scheduled to be played on March 31 in Monterrey, Mexico.

Has anyone boycotted a World Cup before?

There have been boycotts of the Olympics, impacting most notably the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980 and in Los Angeles four years later, during the Cold War. But there has not yet been an equivalent situation at a World Cup.

Several qualified teams withdrew from the 1950 World Cup, but for different reasons.

Turkey cited financial reasons, while Scotland said they would go only if they won the 1949-50 British Home Championship – FIFA said the top two out of the four teams would qualify, but Scotland finished second to England and so refused to go.

Yugoslavia qualified for the 1992 European Championship but the outbreak of war in the Balkans led to UEFA replacing them with Denmark, barely two weeks before the tournament began.

Denmark went on to win the trophy in Sweden.

What does the Iranian diaspora in the US say?

Los Angeles, sometimes nicknamed “Tehrangeles”, is home to nearly 200,000 Iranian-Americans, the largest concentration of Iranians outside of the country.

Iranian-American Shawn Rezaei said: “There was a big fever among the Persian community when the draw happened.”

Fellow Iranian-American Mehran Janani is aware that fans are ambivalent about the men who are supposed to be their heroes.

“There is not 100 per cent support behind the team and mentally, I think that impacts the players,” he said.

Janani said that might translate to tensions in the stands during the World Cup. AFP