Iran to play World Cup games in USA as planned insists FIFA president

Iran will play their World Cup matches in the United States, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has insisted.

Iran's participation has been the subject of uncertainty since the US and Israel launched airstrikes on the country on February 28.

The country's football association officials were the only one of FIFA's 211 member nations absent from Thursday's FIFA congress in Vancouver.

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Infantino opened his congress address by insisting the Iranian team would participate at the finals in north America.

"Let me start at the outset by confirming straight away, for those who maybe want to say something else or write something else, that of course Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026," Infantino said, to cheers from the assembled delegates.

"And of course, Iran will play in the USA. The reason for that is simple, because we have to unite. We have to bring people together."

However, back in March, Iran's sports minister ruled out participating in the World Cup.

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"Considering that ‌this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances ⁠can we ​participate in ​the World ​Cup," Ahmad Donyamali told Iran's state television.

Iran will kick-off their campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15. If they and the US finish second in their respective groups, the sides will meet in the last 32.

US president Donald Trump has previously stated it would be "inappropriate" for Iran to compete "for their own life and safety".

Infantino added: "There are enough problems around the world. There are enough people who try to divide all over the world. If nobody tries to unite, what will happen to our world? We have to do it, and we have this opportunity."

Associations will be invited to vote for FIFA's next president at the 2027 congress, and although Infantino did not confirm his candidacy in Vancouver, he set out some of the achievements of the organisation under his leadership over the last decade.

He referenced $2.7bn (£2bn) of development funding budgeted for the 2027 to 2030 cycle, an eightfold increase on the level prior to him taking office.

He also said revenue for the current cycle, 2022 to 2026, would be more than $14bn (£10.3bn), ahead of budget.

The majority of that revenue stems from this summer's World Cup finals. FIFA has faced stiff criticism for the pricing of World Cup tickets, and the decision to adopt a dynamic pricing strategy.

Infantino said: "You've heard there were many discussions about the ticketing of the World Cup.

"We had 500m ticket requests. In the last two World Cups together, we had 50m ticket requests. Here, 500m. We sold 100 per cent of the inventory that we put on the market, which is more or less 90 per cent of the global inventory so far. And of course, we are always putting tickets on the market.

"There are expensive tickets, yes, but there are also affordable tickets."

Infantino added that all revenue generated goes back into the game in distributions to member associations, and development of new and existing competitions.

"In a big majority of our countries, we could not have organised football the way we know it without the grants and the revenues and the FIFA Forward programme."