The president of Iran’s soccer federation says he does not know if the national team can play World Cup matches in the United States following the surprise American and Israeli bombardment of his country.
The day after the US and Israel began air attacks against his country, Iran’s football federation president Mehdi Taj told sports portal Varzesh3 on Sunday: ‘What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope.’
He also was reported as saying it was Iran’s sport chiefs who would have to decide what will happen.
It comes as Donald Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday in an exclusive interview that he views the military action in Iran to be as long as a four-week campaign.
‘It’s always been a four-week process,’ the President said. ‘We figured it will be four weeks or so.
‘It’s always been about a four-week process so – as strong as it is, it’s a big country, it’ll take four weeks – or less.’
Iran have been drawn into Group G at the World Cup in June, and are scheduled to play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles – a city with a large Iranian population – and Egypt in Seattle.
The United States is hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico from June 11 until July 19. The vast majority of games are in the United States, however.
FIFA has said it is monitoring the situation, while Andrew Giuliani, director of the White House World Cup task force, said on X on Saturday: ‘We’ll deal with soccer games tomorrow — tonight, we celebrate their opportunity for freedom.’
Iran’s football preparations for the tournament will be affected as no matches will be played during the 40-day mourning period for the death of their leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Saturday’s attacks.
Fans from Iran were already banned from entering the U.S. in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.
Only coaches and players from the team were set to be granted visa exemptions to enter the country and compete in the tournament.
