Iran’s sports minister confirmed on Wednesday that the country’s national football team will not participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, withdrawing from a tournament to be co-hosted by the United States three months before the opening fixture in what would be the first politically motivated withdrawal by a qualified nation since the modern era of the competition.
Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali announced the decision in an interview with Iranian state television.
“Considering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup,” he said, referring to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28, the opening day of the war. “Our children are not safe and, fundamentally, such conditions for participation do not exist,” he added.
It is the first time an official from the Iranian government had formally spoken on the country’s World Cup participation since the US and Israel launched their strikes on February 28.
The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran had already cast doubt on the team’s involvement. Federation president Mehdi Taj said on March 1: “After this attack on Iran, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” but stopped short at that point of announcing a definitive withdrawal. Wednesday’s ministerial statement ends that ambiguity.
The 48-team tournament opens on June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico, giving FIFA approximately 92 days to address Iran’s vacant place in the competition. In the draw conducted in Miami in December, Iran was placed in Group G alongside Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. All three of Iran’s group-stage fixtures were allocated to American cities, two at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles and one at Lumen Field in Seattle.
Iran was the only qualified nation absent from a FIFA planning summit for participating associations held in Atlanta last week, a signal that its withdrawal was considered likely within the governing body.
If the withdrawal is confirmed as final, it would be the first time a qualified nation has boycotted the World Cup finals for political reasons since 1950, when Argentina declined to travel to Brazil. The closest historical parallel in recent decades came in 1974, when the Soviet Union refused a World Cup qualifier against Chile following Pinochet’s coup, though that refusal occurred during qualifying, not after a team had already secured a berth.
FIFA’s tournament regulations set out consequences for late withdrawals. Under current rules, any team that pulls out no later than 30 days before the first match faces a minimum fine of 250,000 Swiss francs, approximately $320,800. The regulations additionally empower the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to expel the withdrawing association from subsequent FIFA competitions and to replace it with another member association.
FIFA had not issued a formal statement on Iran’s withdrawal by the time of publication, and the Iranian Football Federation had not responded to media requests for comment.
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Should Iran’s slot be reallocated to another Asian Football Confederation member, Iraq is among the candidates most frequently cited by analysts tracking the matter. FIFA’s process for selecting a replacement has not been publicly confirmed, and no timeline has been announced.
The withdrawal announcement came within hours of an apparent diplomatic effort by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to preserve Iran’s participation. Infantino wrote in a statement posted to social media on Tuesday evening that he had met with President Donald Trump and discussed the World Cup’s preparations.
“We also spoke about the current situation in Iran, and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026,” Infantino said. “During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States.” The statement represented a shift in tone from Trump’s earlier position: in an interview with Politico last week, the president said of Iran’s potential participation, “I really don’t care.”
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Infantino’s assurances carried limited practical weight against Iran’s concerns. Sky Sports News chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol noted that while Iranian players — the vast majority of whom play their club football outside Iran — could likely obtain the necessary visas, those accompanying the delegation with formal ties to the Iranian government or security establishment would face significant obstacles entering the United States. Donyamali cited the security risks directly, saying the war had made preparation impossible and that sending the national team to a country actively bombing Iran was not a viable political position.
Since the start of the US-Israeli campaign on February 28, more than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed and upwards of 12,000 wounded, according to Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, figures that have not been independently verified. Iran has described the strikes as a deliberate assault on civilian infrastructure and has filed multiple complaints with the United Nations Security Council. The war’s intersection with the World Cup has added an unexpected diplomatic dimension to a conflict whose ramifications are already reshaping global energy markets, regional alliances, and US domestic politics simultaneously.
Italy has been mentioned by Newsweek as a possible replacement candidate, contingent on its qualification status, though no formal process has been initiated. FIFA’s regulations require the governing body to act, but the specific mechanism and timeline for replacing a withdrawn team at this stage of tournament preparations have no direct modern precedent.
FIFA has been contacted for comment. The organisation has not confirmed a deadline for receiving Iran’s formal written notification of withdrawal, which is required before any replacement process can formally begin.