Trump says inappropriate for Iran to be at soccer World Cup

By Bhargav Acharya

March 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday the Iran soccer team was welcome to participate in the 2026 World Cup but that he believed it was not appropriate that they be there “for their own life and safety”.

Iran has qualified for the 48-team tournament to be held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico from June 11 and are scheduled to play two group matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.

“The Iran national soccer team is welcome to the World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The Iranian Football Association (FFIRI) issued a statement on social media late on Thursday saying the United States should not be allowed to host the World Cup if it could not guarantee the safety of players.

“The World Cup is a historic and international event and its custodian is FIFA, not any country,” it read.

“Some so-called celebrities want Iran’s team excluded from the World Cup, but if any country should be excluded it is a host country that cannot ensure the safety of the teams taking part.”

Trump later made it clear that any threat to players at the World Cup would not come from the United States.

“It will be the Greatest and Safest Sporting Event in American History,” he said in another Truth Social post.

“All Players, Officials, and Fans will be treated like the “STARS” that they are!”

Soccer’s global governing body FIFA, which owns and organises the World Cup, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s sports minister said on Wednesday that it was not possible for the Iranian players to participate in the tournament after the U.S. launched airstrikes alongside Israel against Tehran, killing the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader.

An official withdrawal by Iran from soccer’s global showpiece would be the first in the modern era and leave FIFA with the urgent task of finding a replacement.

Earlier this week, Australia granted humanitarian visas to five Iranian women soccer players who sought asylum during the Women’s Asian Cup. 

They and their teammates had been branded “wartime traitors” on state TV for failing to sing the Iranian national anthem at a match against South Korea in the Australian city of Gold Coast on March 2.

Trump had urged Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant asylum to members of the team, saying the U.S. would if Australia did not.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto and Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Scott Malone and Lincoln Feast.)