Iran claims that its players will be “unsafe” if they play their World Cup matches in the U.S. this year and they want their games moved to drug cartel-infested Mexico.
The demand comes on the heels of President Trump’s comments last week that Iran was welcome to participate in the World Cup, even though he had launched a targeted military action to take out Iran’s terror-supporting Mullah regime. But even though he welcomed Team Iran to the World Cup, he added that maybe it would be a better idea for Iran to pull out of the World Cup for “their own life and safety.”
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social on March 12.
The president’s Truth Social post sparked the fear that he could not guarantee Team Iran’s safety.
“When Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to America,” Iranian football President Mehdi Taj said in a statement, according to USA Today.
Thus far FIFA has not addressed Iran’s concerns, and said in a statement they they are “in regular contact with all participating member associations” and are “looking forward to all participating teams competing as per the match schedule announced on 6 December 2025.”
However, Mexican president Claudia Schienbaum did release a statement saying they would be happy to host any of the games Team Iran is scheduled to play. Still, it isn’t clear how easy it would be for FIFA to restructure the tournament to accommodate the move.
The World Cup is scheduled to star on June3 11 and will be help in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston
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