FIFA President Gianni Infantino says Iran’s participation in the World Cup would be welcomed by US President Donald Trump, with whom he met and discussed the upcoming tournament amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Infantino said Wednesday that Trump “reiterated that the Iranian team is welcome to compete in the tournament,” which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada in June and July.
During a meeting to discuss preparations for the competition, “we also talked about the current situation in Iran,” Infantino, president of world soccer’s governing body, wrote on Instagram.
“During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” he wrote.
All of Iran’s group matches are scheduled to take place in the United States.
“We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support as it proves once again that football unites the world,” Infantino said.
The comments marked the first time Infantino, who in December created a FIFA peace prize and awarded it to Trump, has acknowledged the war in the Middle East.
The United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The attacks killed 1,255 people and injured more than 12,000 in Iran in the first 12 days of the war.
Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones against Israel, several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate and against infrastructure in the region.
Iran was the only nation not to attend a FIFA planning summit for World Cup participants held last week in Atlanta, Georgia, deepening questions about whether the country’s soccer team would compete on U.S. soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.
Trump told the online news magazine Politico that he is not worried about Iran’s involvement because it is a “very defeated country.”
If the United States refuses to host the Iranian team, it could risk being removed as World Cup host by FIFA.
That’s what happened to Indonesia three years ago, when the country refused to host Israel for the men’s U-20 World Cup eight months after the Israeli team qualified. FIFA eliminated Indonesia just weeks before the first scheduled match and moved that tournament to Argentina.
The president of the Iranian Football Federation questioned his team’s participation in the sporting spectacle after the defection this week of several Iranian footballers during the Asian Cup in Australia.
“If the World Cup is like this, who in their right mind would send their national team to a place like this?” Mehdi Taj asked on Iranian state television.
Iran fans were already banned from entering the United States in the first version of a travel ban announced by the Trump administration in December.
Iran is scheduled to play two of its World Cup group stage matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.
If both the United States and Iran finish second in their respective groups, the two countries could meet in a knockout match on July 3 in Dallas.
If Iran were to withdraw from the sport’s top quadrennial competition, it would be the first time a country had done so since France and India withdrew from the 1950 final in Brazil.
This week, the FIFA World Cup chief operating officer said the tournament is “too big” to postpone due to global turmoil caused by the US-Israel war against Iran.
Heimo Schirgi said that FIFA is closely following the Iran war.
“We basically take it day by day and at some point we will have a resolution,” Schirgi said. “And the World Cup will obviously continue, right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone who has qualified can participate.”
