Iran football chief makes demand to Donald Trump and the US for playing in the World Cup

The World Cup is just over one month away but the uncertainty over the participation of Iran continues to ebb and flow.

Iran qualified for World Cup 2026 more than a year ago as the third non-host to take up a spot in FIFA president Gianni Infantino's 48-team, 104-match colossus.

Booking a World Cup berth on the football pitch was only part of the equation for Iran, a nation at war with the United States.

All three of Iran's Group G fixtures against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt are scheduled to be played on American soil after an earlier suggestion that they be moved to co-host Mexico was quickly dismissed.

With military activity between FIFA members ongoing and American authorities openly and aggressively hostile to some foreign nationals, Iranian players, officials and supporters have repeatedly had to seek assurances about their safety only to be met with thinly-veiled threats from United States president Donald Trump.

After Iran's delegation for last week's FIFA congress in Vancouver was turned away by Canadian immigration, Iranian FA resident Mehdi Taj has again rather ambitiously demanded that the co-hosts provide guarantees that Iran's military not be 'insulted' during the World Cup.

World Cup co-host Canada classifies Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, a status it could soon hold in the United Kingdom too.

"If they give such a guarantee that an incident like Canada doesn’t happen and they definitely assure it, we will go," Taj told Iran's state broadcaster.

According to a statement from Iran's FA, their delegation immediately boarded a flight to Turkiye after encountering immigration officials whose behaviour they found offensive.

"This is something they must pay serious attention to," added Taj.

"If there is such a guarantee and the responsibility is clearly assumed, then an incident like what ⁠⁠happened in Canada will not happen again."

Infantino's relationship with Trump complicates Iran's involvement at the World Cup

Taj told broadcaster IRIB that Iran earned the right to play at the World Cup and that the host is FIFA, not Trump.

That should be a straightforward statement of fact but FIFA's independence from the United States regime is unnecessarily muddied by Infantino's absurd proximity to the president.

Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize at the World Cup draw in December. In February, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran's military sites.

If Iran were to withdraw from the World Cup, Infantino's relationship with Trump means it would reflect on FIFA as much as the host nation.

World Cup qualifiers Iran, Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal are all subject to travel restrictions with the United States.