The president of the United States, Donald Trump, declared that he has no problems with Iran's senior men's team participating in the FIFA World Cup, which will be held on its territory, after the head of the sports organization, Gianni Infantino, confirmed that 'Team Melli' will be in the event despite the ongoing war with Washington and Tel Aviv.

First modification: 05/01/2026 - 01:28

FIFA confirms the participation of the Iranian team in the Senior Men's World Cup.

This Thursday, April 30, in the middle of the entity's annual Congress held in the Canadian city of Vancouver, the organization's top leader, Gianni Infantino, declared that the representation of the Islamic Republic will be present in the tournament, regardless of whether it has matches scheduled in the United States.

"Of course, Iran is going to play in the United States of America. The reason is very simple. We have to unite and get closer to the people. FIFA unites the world. We have to always remember to be positive," said the Swiss leader.

Later, US President Donald Trump told the press in the Oval Room of the White House that "If Gianni said it, I'm fine."

"You know what? Let them play," added the president.

Outside the convention center where the FIFA Congress was held in Vancouver, dozens of protesters gathered holding images of the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, and posters against the ayatollahs, to ask that the so-called 'Team Melli' not be allowed to participate.

"This is not Iran, it is the team of the Islamic Republic. It is the team of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So they are not here to represent Iran. They are here to normalize what is happening in Iran, the massacre in Iran. Therefore, no, they should not be in the World Cup," Pouria Mahmoudi told the Reuters agency.

Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic on February 28 of this year, the participation of the Iranian team in the greatest football tournament has been in doubt.

At the time, the Minister of Sports and Youth of the Government of Tehran, Ahmad Donayamali, said that "in the last eight or nine months, two wars have been imposed on us and several thousand of our compatriots have died or been martyred. Therefore, we definitely have no possibility to participate."

The Iranian senior team qualified for the World Cup after finishing first in group A in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers, and was, apart from the organizers (USA, Canada and Mexico), the third team to reserve its place, after Japan and New Zealand.

The 2026 World Cup in North America will be the seventh with the presence of the Iranian eleven, which has never made it past the first round.

In the 2026 edition phase, Iran is part of group G and is scheduled to play with its counterpart from New Zealand on June 15 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. They will then face Belgium at the same venue on June 21 and finally face Egypt on June 26 at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Iranian Federation absent

The representatives of the Iranian Federation were the main absentees at the annual FIFA Congress in which World Cup participation was ratified. In fact, the organization's secretary general, Mattias Grafström, called the 211 federations and only one was missing, the Iranian one.

The leaders of the Islamic Republic alleged that they were turned away at Toronto's main airport, despite having valid visas, because their leaders are allegedly linked to the Revolutionary Guard.

The state agency Tasnim reported that the president of the federation, Mehdi Taj, the secretary general, Hedayat Mombeni, and his deputy, Hamed Momeni, suffered "unacceptable behavior by immigration officials."

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Canada, like the United States and the European Union, has declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

"While we cannot comment on individual cases due to privacy laws, the government has been clear and consistent: officials of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country," Mark Carney's government said in a statement.

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration had no objections to Iranian players participating in the World Cup, but warned that the delegation would not be allowed to include people with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Infantino bets on tranquility

Throughout his speech to the members, President Infantino declared that the organization is going through “its best moment.”

The Swiss leader emphasized the increase in FIFA's income during his management, which has gone from 6.5 billion dollars annually to 14,000 million in the most recent measurement.

Under Infantino's management, the number of participants has been expanded for both the men's senior World Cup, which for the 2026 edition will have 48 teams for the first time, and for the senior women's competition, which for Australia and New Zealand 2023 debuted the 32-team format.

In addition, Infantino highlighted the creation of new competitions in search of maximizing FIFA's income, such as the new Club World Cup and the FIFA Series friendly match system.

In response to the wave of criticism over the price of tickets and the World Cup ticket distribution system, the leader assured that "there are expensive tickets but also affordable ones."

He added that so far FIFA has received 500 million requests for tickets and that all the tickets on sale have been sold out, which according to him is equivalent to around 90% of the total capacity of the event.

For the first time, football's governing body is using dynamic pricing to market tickets, citing the "extraordinary" demand to attend this tournament, which takes place every four years.

However, journalistic investigations by the newspaper 'The Athletic' have reported that in the most recent phase of ticket distribution, there are tickets whose price can exceed 10,000 US dollars and the organization has created new categories of tickets that did not exist in the initial offer.

With EFE, Reuters and local media

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