Iran’s sports minister has put an end to any hopes of the country playing at the 2026 World Cup.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has continually tried to pretend everything is OK and that Iran will be welcome despite being bombed by host country USA.
Now in response, sports minister appears to have put the matter to bed.
Ahmad Doyanmali said: “Given that this corrupt government has assassinated our leader, there are no conditions under which we can participate in the World Cup.
“We have been subjected to two wars in eight or nine months, and several thousand of our citizens have been killed.
“Therefore, we have no possibility of participating in this way.”
In a criticism of the US, he added: “If the host country had been different, the international community would surely have reacted and withdrawn the hosting rights.”
What happens next?
There is very little precedent for teams withdrawing from FIFA World Cups, with the last case way back in 1950.
On that occasion Scotland, Turkey, India, and France withdrew from Brazil for differing reasons.
There has been a far more recent case at a FIFA competition, the 2025 Club World Cup.
Club Leon had to withdraw on multi-club ownership rules and the result showed how much of a black hole there is in the FIFA rules.
Article 6.2 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup regulations states that the governing body can almost pick a new side from random with no restrictions.
On that occasion, FIFA picked Los Angeles FC, given that they’d lost to Leon in a qualifying match for the tournament.
The equivalent this time around could arguably be the United Arab Emirates who finished third in a qualifying group Iran topped, stopping them from progressing.
Yet with the rules not set, unqualified teams like four time winners Italy will surely attempt to argue their case should they not make it through the play-offs.
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