Iran In Talks With FIFA To Move Their Matches Out Of USA

 

 

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is on the verge of facing a participation crisis identical to the ICC T20 World Cup. The Iranian Football Federation is pushing for its matches to be relocated to Mexico from the United States due to safety concerns, as per a report by news agency Reuters.

It is a similar situation to the T20 World Cup, where Bangladesh pulled out due to security issues, and Pakistan threatened to boycott the match against India due to the escalated geopolitical tensions between the two countries. The geopolitics is likely to affect the situation around the FIFA World Cup.

 

Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian football federation, wrote in a post on ‘X’ handle that Iran will not travel to the US.

"When Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to America. We are negotiating with FIFA to hold Iran's World Cup matches in Mexico,” Taj said in a post on the Iranian embassy in Mexico's X account.

 

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tournament is set to commence on June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Iran will play two group stage matches in the tournament, which are to be hosted in the USA in Los Angeles and in Seattle.

Also, the US President Donald Trump had said last week that it wouldn’t be risky for the Iranian players to participate in the showpiece event due to the security concerns.

 

The recent conflict emerged after the US and Israel attacked Iran, and both parties have been engaged in a global conflict since then. Iran responded with a missile attack on the US’s military bases in the Gulf countries, and that has now triggered a war-like situation in the Middle East region and West Asia.