US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran’s men’s national soccer team is welcome to participate in the 2026 World Cup, but he believes it is not appropriate for them to be there “for their own lives and safety.”
“The Iranian national soccer team is welcome at the World Cup, but I really don’t believe it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own lives and safety,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
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Iran’s sports minister said on Wednesday it was impossible for his nation’s athletes to participate after the US launched airstrikes alongside Israel against Tehran. The attacks have sparked a region-wide conflict that shows no signs of abating.
The 48-team World Cup will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, with Iran scheduled to play in Los Angeles and Seattle.
Iran’s official withdrawal from the exhibition event, which has yet to happen, would be a first in the modern era and would leave soccer’s global governing body FIFA with the urgent task of finding a replacement team.
Iran was the only country absent from FIFA’s World Cup planning summit held in Atlanta last week.
FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Late last year, she awarded Trump, who has aggressively campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, his own inaugural peace prize.
Earlier this week, Australia granted humanitarian visas to five Iranian soccer players after they sought asylum because they feared persecution upon returning home for refusing to sing the national anthem at an Asian Cup match.
Trump urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant asylum to members of the Iranian women’s team, saying the US would do so if Australia did not.
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Issued by:
Satyam Singh
Published on:
12 March 2026 23:04 IST
