MEXICO, March 17. /TASS/. The Iranian Football Federation is in talks with the world’s governing football body, FIFA, on relocating the team's matches at the 2026 World Cup from the United States to Mexico, Mehdi Taj, the president of the Iranian football body, said on Tuesday.
"As [US President Donald] Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to America," the Iranian Embassy in Mexico quoted Taj as saying on its X social network account. "We are currently negotiating with FIFA to hold Iran's matches in the World Cup in Mexico."
On March 11, Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali stated that the Iranian national football team would skip the 2026 FIFA World Cup. However, on March 16, the Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Windsor John, announced that there were no official notifications from the Iranian side regarding its refusal to participate in the upcoming World Championship.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States between June 11 and July 19. The matches will be staged in 16 cities across the three countries. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams instead of the previous 32-team format.
The Iranian football team qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and following the Draw was placed in Group G alongside Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. Iran was scheduled to play all of its three group stage matches in the United States.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February·28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.
The Assembly of Experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran later announced the election of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the assassinated ayatollah, as the country’s new Supreme Leader.