Iran pull out of World Cup 2026 with a scathing statement: the reasons | OneFootball

Ahmad Doyanmali, Minister of Sports, stated that his country’s national team will not attend the world’s top sporting event, following attacks by the United States and Israel that triggered a war in the Middle East.

Ahmad Doyanmali, Iran’s Minister of Sports, affirmed that his country will not play in the 2026 World Cup through a harsh statement against the United States, which had opened the doors to them just hours earlier: “Given that this corrupt government has murdered our leader (Ali Khamenei), there is no way we can participate.”

Doyanmali continued: “We have had two wars imposed on us in eight or nine months and several thousand of our citizens have been killed. Therefore, we have no chance of competing under these circumstances.” Finally, he assured: “If the host country were another, surely the international community would have reacted and stripped them of the hosting rights.” in an interview with the German Press Agency.

The United States has carried out two offensives against the Iranian regime since Trump began his second term. First, there was Operation Midnight Hammer, which started and ended on June 22, 2025, and consisted of bombings on three nuclear plants in the Middle Eastern country. Second, the war that began on February 28 and is still ongoing. In fact, in recent hours, the Republican president promised “retaliation like never before.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, asked: “What sensible person would send their national team to the United States if the World Cup were as political as the Asian Cup was?” In Australia, the Iranian women’s team did not sing their national anthem and six players requested asylum from Anthony Albanese’s government.

The Persian Lions had qualified for Group G of the world’s top sporting event, which will begin on June 11, and their three mandatory matches were to be played in the United States. According to their schedule, they were supposed to face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.

Minutes before Doyanmali’s statements, Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, had revealed: “Yesterday I met with President Trump. We talked about the current situation in Iran and the fact that their team had qualified to participate in the World Cup. During the conversation, Trump reiterated that their team is, of course, welcome to compete.”

However, Iranian citizens are not allowed to enter the United States due to the visa system, which the Trump administration made stricter and which also affects Haiti, Senegal, and Ivory Coast, who have also qualified for the event.

Now, FIFA must look for a replacement. Section 6.7 of the regulations specifies that “if a participating federation withdraws or is excluded from the FIFA World Cup 26, FIFA will decide at its sole discretion and take whatever action it deems necessary. FIFA may decide, in particular, to replace such federation with another.”

Which teams could benefit from this withdrawal? If the spot granted to the Asian Confederation (8.5 places) is maintained, the best positioned would be the Iraqi national team, which earned the right to play in the international playoff, next March 31 against the winner of the semifinal between Bolivia and Suriname. In that case, the team from United Arab Emirates, which lost to Iraq in the Asian zone playoff, could attend that playoff.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.