Politics vs Football: Iran Faces Pressure to Withdraw from World Cup 2026

The United States has proposed replacing Iran's national team with Italy's at the FIFA World Cup, which will take place this summer, including on US territory.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by geisagholian, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Iranian female football fan

Iran Pressured to Withdraw from World Cup 2026 in US

US Special Envoy for Global Partnerships Paolo Zampolli made this proposal to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, The Financial Times reports. Zampolli justified the idea by pointing to Italy's four World Cup titles, arguing that this record warrants granting the team a place in the tournament.

According to The Financial Times, the proposal is also an attempt to restore ties between President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after Trump's criticism of the Pope. However, Italy's position appears to be of little real importance to Trump. In reality, a different objective is evident — to humiliate Iran by failing to guarantee the team's security and forcing it to withdraw from the tournament voluntarily. In this regard, significant pressure is currently being exerted on Tehran, including through Zampolli's statement.

Iran responded on Wednesday that it is ready for the tournament and intends to participate. The Iranian side had requested that its group-stage matches be moved to Canada or Mexico, but FIFA rejected this proposal.

Italy on the Brink of Embarrassment

Meanwhile, FIFA awarded Trump its first "peace prize." The organization is free to make decisions regarding the upcoming World Cup (although such decisions can be challenged in court), but its statutes establish a fixed number of participants for each continent. This means that, in theory, Iran's place should go to another Asian team, not a European one.

Moreover, Italy's national team has not demonstrated any recent sporting success. It has failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time, losing its decisive match to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shootout.

If one assumes that Iran withdraws and Italy agrees to take its place, it would become a disgrace for the four-time world champion.

Why FIFA Allows Double Standards

There has long been talk that sport should remain outside politics, yet reality suggests otherwise. If FIFA followed the same logic it used when banning Russia from competitions over the conflict in Ukraine, then the United States should be stripped of its right to host the World Cup, with matches transferred to co-hosts Mexico and Canada. The problem is the absence of collective will. Federations from the Global South remain silent, while Western nations successfully coordinated the collective punishment of Russia following the start of the conflict in 2022. Immediately afterward, 12 European football associations, including Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic, officially refused to play against the Russian national team.

This is precisely where diplomatic efforts could have been applied, yet progress has been extremely slow. The initiative to move into the Asian football federation has also stalled.

Another factor is that FIFA's largest sponsors are based in the United States. The situation may become clearer with the start of the qualification campaign for the 2030 World Cup. If US aggression against Iran continues or escalates — especially if nuclear weapons are used — and other countries begin demanding "mirror measures,” FIFA could face a deadlock. Its leadership would then have to either sanction the United States or fully lift political restrictions on Russia to preserve its image as a global organization.

There are already signs of this shift. Gianni Infantino has begun speaking in favor of lifting the ban on Russian teams, calling it ineffective and urging that "connections remain open.” Nevertheless, UEFA continues to tie Russia's return exclusively to the end of the military conflict in Ukraine.