Donald Trump's apathetic response when asked if Iran won't be in the World Cup

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 4 Mar 2026 03:19 CST
• 4 min read

News

United States President Donald Trump has shrugged off concerns that Iran won't be involved in the upcoming 2026 World Cup.

The next edition of the World Cup will take place across the United States, Canada and Mexico and Iran are scheduled to play at least three matches of the tournament. They will play against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.

However, those fixtures are now in major doubt as Iran finds itself in a conflict with the USA and Israel.

On Saturday, the United States attacked Iran in partnership with Israel.

One of the attacks killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom the USA and Israel had been tracking for months. Iran retaliated and started bombing strategic targets in the Middle East.

"With what happened... and with that attack by the United States, it is unlikely that we can look forward to the World Cup, but the sports chiefs are the ones who must decide on that," Iran football federation president Mehdi Taj told Iranian television.

FIFA have not made a decision yet but general secretary Mattias Grafstrom said "our focus is to have a safe World Cup with everybody participating".

Trump, for his part, isn't concerning himself with Iran's participation. When asked about it, he told Politico: “I really don’t care [if Iran participate]. I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes.”

Should Iran not participate, they will be replaced by another country from that region, with Iraq and the United Arab Emirates the favourites to win their spot, though Iraq could qualify anyway via an intercontinental playoff.

"We are in uncharted territory in that we are just over three months away from the start of the World Cup and the hosts have just launched a war of aggression against a participating country," Nick McGeehan of human rights advocacy group FairSquare told BBC Sport.

"If Iran withdraws its team - an outcome that seems entirely plausible - Fifa is likely to breathe a sigh of relief given the scope for protest and unrest."

These bombings came in the same week that it was confirmed that various World Cup host cities had not received the necessary funds from the government for infrastructure and security costs.

A $900 million kitty was promised to the host cities but that has yet to be received, which is raising major concerns, particularly over security.

Ray Martinez, chief operating officer of the Miami World Cup Host Committee, insists that events will have to be cancelled if funding is not received.

"We have to start making some really tough decisions and it starts with our fan festival," he said.

"Without receiving this money, it could be catastrophic for our planning and co-ordination.

"The matches up at the stadium will take place, but preparing for all the impromptu events and watch parties that we are expecting to see will be in jeopardy."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) launched a grant programme in November

to allow host cities to "carry out the extensive security activities required to protect players, staff, attendees, venues and critical infrastructure across the host cities, strengthening them against potential terrorist attacks".

The news of the overall funding freeze comes as officials in Foxborough, Boston are refusing to give FIFA an entertainment license to hold matches at the Gillette Stadium until they receive funding.

At the moment, Foxborough is the only World Cup location yet to issue an entertainment license to FIFA to hold the matches as a row has erupted over who will pay for security for seven tournament fixtures.

Foxborough has determined that around $7.7 million will be required to cover security and infrastructure costs to host the matches - and they are refusing to pay it themselves.

There is currently a partial government shutdown in the United States after Democrats refused to provide more Homeland Security funding. Homeland Security is the department that deals with immigration enforcement and there is major scrutiny on them at the moment following the ICE shootings of two American citizens in Minnesota in January.

This is the second shutdown in the past year, following one in November of 2025 which left thousands of federal workers without pay.

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•App Store