FIFA faces the prospect of finding a team for the World Cup as Iran says it will boycott the tournament over its conflict with the United States.
Iran has qualified for the World Cup but has no intention of taking part (Image: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)
FIFA may be facing a race against time to find Iran’s replacement after US and Israeli airstrikes on the country led to the country insisting it “cannot participate in the World Cup under any circumstances”.
Competitions in North America are mainly held in the United States, and political decisions in the United States are having ripples throughout the soccer world. The conflict resulted in the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the destruction of parts of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Iran’s sports minister has revealed the country’s plans to avoid the World Cup, meaning FIFA will have to find a new country to join Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. Iran had qualified as the top of the section in the Asian qualification system, but world soccer leaders have several options.
FIFA’s rulebook states that substitutes will be selected from “named substitutes, often the direct runners-up of the relevant qualifying play-offs, or the highest ranked ineligible team of that federation.”
One solution could be for the UAE to hurry up and qualify for the tournament, given that they fell behind Iran in the qualifying round. However, they lost to Iraq in the Asian Confederation match that decided the intercontinental playoffs to be held a few weeks later.
read more: World Cup crisis deepens as battle continues over England’s host venueread more: Iran’s penalty for withdrawing from the World Cup, can FIFA replace the penalty with another country?
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Iraq will play the winner of Bolivia and Suriname for a spot in the World Cup, which complicates the facts. There is talk of FIFA giving Iraq an automatic spot in the tournament in place of Iran, with the UAE competing in the intercontinental play-offs instead.
An unlikely workaround for FIFA would be to play only three teams in the World Cup’s group stage, with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand facing each other. The expanded tournament would mean that the best-performing third-place team would advance to the finals, but with only three teams in the group, that scenario would be complicated.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino received assurances from Donald Trump that Iran remains welcoming, but will likely have to look for another country (Image: Emilee Chinn – FIFA, FIFA via Getty Images)
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has claimed that he met with US President Donald Trump and received assurances that Iran is welcome to participate in the tournament despite the conflict in the Middle East.
“During the talks, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is of course welcome to participate in the tournament in the United States,” he said.
Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali opened fire on the current US office, clarifying Iran’s position. “Under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup, given that this corrupt regime (USA) assassinated our leader. Given the malicious measures taken against Iran, two wars were imposed within eight to nine months, thousands of our people were killed. Our children are not safe, and there are basically no conditions for such participation,” he said in a television interview.
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