Trump’s safety warning throws Iran’s World Cup participation into uncertainty

US President Donald Trump has sparked a major international sporting controversy after suggesting that Iran’s football team should not participate in the upcoming World Cup, claiming it would not be “appropriate” for the players to travel to the United States for “their own life and safety”. Writing on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump argued that the United States, which co-hosts the tournament with Canada and Mexico, could not guarantee the safety of the Iranian squad. The remark represented a striking reversal of his own earlier assurances and has unsettled organisers preparing for the world’s biggest football tournament.

Only days earlier, following a meeting in Washington, D.C., the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, publicly thanked Trump for his support for the tournament. Infantino said Trump had confirmed that Iran’s team was “of course, welcome to compete” in the competition.

Trump’s subsequent suggestion that the players might not be safe has, therefore, raised alarm in the sporting world. Ensuring the security of athletes has long been a core principle of international sporting events, particularly global competitions such as the FIFA World Cup. Public comments from a host nation’s leader casting doubt on that commitment are exceedingly rare.

The controversy has unfolded against the backdrop of a rapidly escalating war between Iran and the US-Israel alliance. Although sport has frequently intersected with politics, the present situation presents an unusually complex challenge. The Cold War witnessed high-profile boycotts such as the US-led protest of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet bloc’s retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. More recently, Russian teams were suspended from FIFA competitions after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Yet in most of those cases, decisions were taken by governing bodies rather than directly shaped by the host nation’s leadership.

Adding another layer of controversy, Trump recently offered asylum to members of Iran’s women’s national football team after several players sought humanitarian visas in Australia over safety concerns. That move stood in stark contrast to his warnings about the Iranian men’s team travelling to the United States.

The unusual situation has created a significant logistical and administrative challenge for FIFA. Iran had already qualified from the Asian Football Confederation and had been placed in Group G of the tournament. The team was scheduled to hold a training camp in Tucson before playing three group matches in the United States. Those matches included fixtures against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and June 21, followed by a game against Egypt in Seattle on June 26. Tickets have already been sold and training facilities booked, meaning any change would create major organisational complications.

Under FIFA regulations, the governing body holds the final authority in such situations. If Iran formally withdraws or is barred from competing, FIFA could allow the group to proceed with three teams or invite a replacement side. Analysts suggest that the most likely substitutes would be the highest-ranked Asian teams that narrowly missed qualification, such as the United Arab Emirates or Iraq. At the same time, Infantino and FIFA are facing growing criticism from commentators and fans who argue that the organisation has been reluctant to challenge the political pressure surrounding the tournament.

In Tehran, the response from Iranian officials was swift. Ahmad Donyamali, Iran’s sports minister, announced on state television that the country would not take part in the tournament under current conditions. He accused the United States of leading what he described as a “corrupt government” responsible for assassinating Iran’s leader and launching a devastating military campaign against the country. 

Donyamali said Iran had effectively been forced into two wars in the past nine months and insisted that the necessary conditions for participation in the World Cup simply did not exist. Sending the team to the United States, he argued, would place the players at unacceptable risk.

Similar concerns were voiced by Mehdi Taj, the head of the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. Taj suggested that no rational authority would agree to send a national team to compete in a country it was currently at war with.

Despite the statements from Washington and Tehran, the players themselves have taken a firm and unusually public stance. In a message posted on Instagram, Iran’s men’s national team rejected Trump’s warnings about their safety and insisted that no individual leader could exclude them from the World Cup. The team emphasised that the tournament is an international competition governed by FIFA rather than by any single host country. Celebrating their qualification as the achievement of the “brave sons of Iran”, the players argued that their place in the tournament had been earned on the pitch. In a pointed response to the controversy, the statement concluded that the only country that should face exclusion was one that claimed the title of host while failing to guarantee the security of the teams invited to compete.