One question for each 2026 World Cup team. There isn’t really a fun blog question to ask about Iran at the 2026 World Cup.
Would you love me in a Bentley? Would you love me on a $95 bus from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium? Footnote is asking 48 questions, and they’re all about the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, except there isn’t a good question to set up a fun blog about Iran.
There isn’t a fun blog question to ask about Iran at the 2026 World Cup.
It’s impossible to get around the fact that this really shouldn’t be happening. And the World Cup is certainly the least important part of the war in Iran, but it’s certainly part of it.
It is helpful, in times like this, to list out facts.
In late February of 2026, a little over three months before Iran was due to play World Cup matches in the United States, the U.S. launched air strikes against Iran. The stated goal of these attacks was to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear program, and also to eliminate the most powerful leaders of the country’s fundamentalist government.
In response to the U.S. aggression, Iran launched strikes against American allies across the Gulf and the Middle East. Iran also seized the Strait of Hormuz, causing huge disruptions to global oil supplies and a potentially averted but possibly still imminent global economic crisis. As recently as late May, the United Nations has warned that the war has choked off the global supply of fertilizer that might cause global food shortages.
As of late March, the Iranian Health Ministry estimated that 2,076 people, including 216 children, have been killed in the bombings. Local authorities estimate that in the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel that spiralled out of the Iran war, 2,454 have been killed in Lebanon.
Peace talks between the United States and Iran are stop-and-start and despite a ceasefire the United States continues to conduct what it describes as defensive strikes against Iranian drone infrastructure.
Potentially as a negotiation tactic, and possibly because this is what he intends to do, the President of the United States has issued what scholars define as threats to commit genocide.
And against the backdrop of all of this, Iran is still going to play the World Cup in the United States. There are tons of complications to this, included but not limited to the fact that Iranians are currently barred from entering the United States.
In late May, the Iranian football federation announced that they would be based in Mexico rather than the United States for the duration of the tournament, and fly back and forth to Seattle and Los Angeles for its matches.
There isn’t really much to say about all of this. The Iranian players shouldn’t be put in this position. The Iranian people shouldn’t be put in this situation.
But FIFA can’t force Iran not to play in the World Cup because the United States decided to start bombing them.1Whether or not they should be forcing the Untied States to not play in this World Cup is another question however. And it appears that the Iranian players are going to go ahead and play.
So, I guess watch out for Mehdi Taremi, who has long been one of the more reliable strikers in Europe, and Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who is a skillful and athletic midfielder despite never quite fitting in at Brighton.
But there isn’t really a fun joke to make about Iran at this World Cup. Just another reminder that the United States government does what it wants and the rest of the world lives with the consequences.
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