FIFA President Gianni Infantino says Iran’s participation in the World Cup would be welcomed by United States President Donald Trump, with whom he met and discussed the upcoming tournament amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Infantino said on Wednesday that Trump “reiterated that the Iranian team is welcome to compete in the tournament”, which is being cohosted by the US, Mexico and Canada in June and July.
During a meeting to discuss preparations for the competition, “we also spoke about the current situation in Iran,” Infantino, the head of world football’s governing body, wrote on Instagram.
“During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” he wrote.
All of Iran’s group games are scheduled to take place in the US.
“We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World,” Infantino said.
The comments marked the first time that Infantino, who in December created a FIFA peace prize and awarded it to Trump, has acknowledged the war in the Middle East.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The attacks have killed 1,255 people and wounded more than 12,000 in Iran in the first 12 days of the war.
Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel, several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate and at infrastructure in the region.
Iran was the only nation missing from a FIFA planning summit for World Cup participants held last week in Atlanta, Georgia, deepening questions over whether the country’s football team would compete on US soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.
Trump told the online news magazine Politico that he is not concerned about Iran’s participation because it is a “very badly defeated country”.
If the US refuses to host the Iran team, it could risk being removed as a World Cup host by FIFA.
That is what happened to Indonesia three years ago when the country refused to welcome Israel for the men’s Under-20 World Cup eight months after the Israeli team qualified. FIFA dropped Indonesia just weeks before the scheduled first game and moved that tournament to Argentina.
The head of the Iranian Football Federation cast doubt on his team’s participation in the sporting extravaganza after the defection this week of several Iranian female footballers during the Asian Cup in Australia.
“If the World Cup is like this, who in their right mind would send their national team to a place like this?” Mehdi Taj asked on Iranian state television.
Fans from Iran were already banned from entering the US in the first iteration of a travel ban announced by the Trump administration in December.
Iran are scheduled to play two of their World Cup group games in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.
If both the US and Iran finish second in their respective groups, the two countries could meet in a July 3 elimination match in Dallas.
Should Iran withdraw from the sport’s quadrennial showpiece, it would be the first time a country did that since France and India pulled out of the 1950 finals in Brazil.
This week, FIFA’s World Cup chief operating officer said the tournament is “too big” to be postponed because of the global turmoil caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Heimo Schirgi said FIFA continues to closely monitor the Iran war.
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