Iran Threatens 2026 World Cup Withdrawal Amid US-Israel Attacks

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN - In the shadow of the US-Israel attacks, Iran has cast uncertainty over the 2026 FIFA World Cup. On Saturday, joint US-Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prompting an immediate reaction from Iranian football authorities.

Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian Football Federation, told state television that participation in the tournament now appears“unlikely”.

“With what happened today [Saturday] and with that attack by the United States, it is unlikely that we can look forward to the cup,” Taj said, adding that“the sports chiefs are the ones who must decide on that”.

Iran had already qualified and been drawn in Group G alongside Belgium, New Zealand and Egypt. The team is scheduled to play two matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle, with a training base planned in Tucson, Arizona. Those arrangements are now in doubt.

FIFA responded with measured caution.

Speaking at the International Football Association Board's annual meeting in Cardiff on Saturday, Secretary-General Mattias Grafstrom said the organisation was monitoring developments closely but declined to speculate.

“I read the news the same way you did this morning,” he told reporters.“It is premature to comment in detail... our focus is on a safe World Cup with all the teams participating.”

He added that FIFA would maintain its usual dialogue with the three host governments, the United States, Canada and Mexico, to ensure security for all participating teams.

Should Iran ultimately withdraw, FIFA regulations allow tournament organisers to select a replacement, most likely the United Arab Emirates or Iraq from the Asian qualification pathway, in order to preserve the expanded 48-team format and maintain group balance.

Previous events tell that major sporting events are rarely insulated from geopolitics. History is marked by expulsions, boycotts and forced withdrawals driven by political crises.

One of the clearest precedents came at the 1992 European Championship. Yugoslavia had qualified for the tournament, but following the outbreak of war and the imposition of the UN sanctions, the team was expelled just days before kick-off. Denmark were invited as a late replacement and went on to win the title, a dramatic illustration of how political decisions can reshape sporting history.

Another similar political intervention occurred in 1974 World Cup qualifying. The Soviet Union refused to play the second leg of a play-off against Chile in Santiago's Estadio Nacional, which had become a notorious detention centre following the coup against President Salvador Allende. The USSR declined to travel and were disqualified, allowing Chile to advance.

The Olympic Games provide even starker examples. In 1980, the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics involving more than 60 nations to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Four years later, the Soviet bloc retaliated by skipping the Los Angeles Games. In 1976, 28 mainly African countries boycotted the Montreal Olympics after the International Olympic Committee declined to ban New Zealand, whose rugby team had toured apartheid South Africa.

FIFA has long maintained that football should remain separate from politics.

Its president, Gianni Infantino, has emphasised the World Cup as a unifying force.

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