Zurich
\nFifa president Gianni Infantino said that Iran will \u201cfor sure\u201d participate in the 2026 World Cup despite the Middle East war.
\n\u201cIran is coming for sure. We hope that by then the situation will be a peaceful situation, that would definitely help,\u201d Infantino told an economic conference organised by broadcaster CNBC.
\n\u201cBut Iran has to come, they represent their people, they have qualified, the players want to play,\u201d he said of the team\u2019s upcoming matches scheduled in the United States in June.
\nInfantino had made similar comments in March, when he attended an Iran-Costa Rica friendly in Antalya, Turkiye, even though US President Donald Trump had previously suggested that Iranian players might not be \u201csafe\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u2018Outside of politics\u2019
\nIran\u2019s participation in the global tournament being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico had been thrown into doubt by the conflict launched by the United States and Israel on February 28.
\nIran raised the prospect of a \u201cboycott\u201d of the competition before asking Fifa to move its matches from the United States to Mexico, a request the world governing body rejected.
\nAfter several weeks of air strikes on Iran and Iranian reprisals against Israel and other countries in the region, a fragile truce came into effect on April 8.
\nBut Tehran has sealed off the strategic Strait of Hormuz and since Monday Washington has imposed a blockade on ships coming from or heading to Iranian ports.
\n\u201cSports should be outside of politics,\u201d Infantino said on Wednesday.
\n\u201cIf there\u2019s nobody else that believes in building bridges and keeping them intact and together, we are doing the job,\u201d he said.
\nThe World Cup, the first to feature 48 teams, starts on June 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zurich Fifa president Gianni Infantino said that Iran will \u201cfor sure\u201d participate in the 2026 World Cup despite the Middle East war. \u201cIran is coming for sure. We hope that by then the situation will be a peaceful situation, that would definitely help,\u201d Infantino told an economic conference organised by broadcaster CNBC. \u201cBut Iran has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-542202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n