Delving into the history books, glazing over a 96-year story of international football’s top-tier event, not much looks out of place in analysing Iraq’s triumvirate of one-goal defeats at the 1986 World Cup. Nor Argentina’s disappointing second group stage exit in 1982, when Diego Maradona first flirted with the globe’s greatest stage. Yet their significance, some four decades on, is now pertinent as the tournament takes place in the United States.
Back then, Argentina and Iraq were two countries competing in the World Cup while embroiled in international warfare. Argentina surrendered in the Falklands War just one day after Spain ‘82 started and, mercifully, did not draw any of the three British teams taking part, while Iraq were in the midst of an eight-year war with Iran at Mexico ‘86. Tension between the two remains ubiquitous. Yet beyond civil conflicts, there have been no comparable examples since. “Football unites the world,” is the tired slogan continually belted out by Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Well, not this time.
Beyond the astronomical ticket prices and controversial visa squabbles, the dumbfounding water bottle ban and the hydration/advertisement/momentum breaks (delete as applicable), what really makes the 2026 World Cup unprecedented – a word used all-too often, but necessarily so, in the build-up – is Iran’s participation amid the current geopolitical climate.
The hard truth of the scenario is worth repeating: this is the first time in 23 men’s Fifa World Cups that a competing nation is at war with a host, or in this instance a co-host. It’s unprecedented, unparalleled and completely unheard-of.
As of Sunday night, a framework has been agreed to end the war, with signatures set to be penned on Friday in Switzerland. “Let the oil flow!” posted Donald Trump, given the impending re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz. The technical priority is to extend the ceasefire by 60 days. Israel are, at the time of writing, yet to comment. Let’s wait and see how the next week unfolds.
Yet Trump’s positivity contrasts so emphatically with the horrifying tone of his rhetoric and the astonishing scale of his threats since the war began on 28 February. It was only in April when Trump literally threatened to commit genocide on the Iranian people. “A whole civilisation will die tonight,” the US president, the real-life US president, actually posted on Truth Social.
Of course, such cataclysmic events did not materialise. Yet the seismic impact of such perilous remarks, ahead of an international bonanza where Iran are a qualified participant, with three games scheduled on America’s west coast over the next fortnight, was unequivocal.
As Pacific University of Oregon politics professor Jules Boykoff summarised: “There’s never been a World Cup where one of the hosts is openly threatening war crimes against one of the participating nations, and that participating nation, in turn, is bombing other participating nations.
“The levels of newness is off the charts.”
It is within that context that Iran travelled on Sunday to Los Angeles for their clash against New Zealand, the lowest-ranked team in the competition. Late in the day, visas were issued which gave the Iranian squad permission to travel to the US from their Mexican base in Tijuana before the day of the game, in order to conduct the necessary media duties and train at the stadium, should they so wish.
They didn’t. Instead, the team strolled around LA’s 70,000-capacity SoFi Stadium which, given the city’s strong Iranian community – known colloquially as Tehrangeles – is likely to be packed with Persian supporters on Monday. Iran travelled, however, without 11 members of their backroom staff, denied their visas to the US on appeal. Four members of their delegation won their appeals after 15 initial rejections.
It is amidst that dark cloud that their captain and best player, striker Mehdi Taremi, spoke to a packed SoFi press room on Sunday. “I have felt the tension from the first moment we arrived at this World Cup,” he said, via an interpreter. “At any tournament when there is tension, we won’t have the same beautiful experience we always talk about with peace and joy.
“I know it wasn’t just us. I know several countries had visa problems and changes with training camps. Before we arrived, the feeling, the sensation people always have, how they look forward to the World Cup, I think this time maybe they haven’t had the same feeling.”
Iran were meant to base themselves in Tucson, Arizona, before they switched to Mexico for obvious reasons. Their US visas compel them to leave immediately after their matches end – they play in LA again before their final group-stage game in Seattle a week on Friday. And Iran supporters have, according to the country’s football association, had their match tickets revoked at the eleventh hour.
“This kind of tension, it undermines that joy and it undermines the message of Fifa and our people, which is that football brings about peace,” Taremi added. “I feel like this World Cup could have provided a better atmosphere than it has, but I hope in the future it will be better for all fans, whatever team they are supporting in the World Cup.”
The atmosphere in and around Inglewood on Monday will be intriguing and potentially turbulent. While Iranians are proud and patriotic people, many feel the national team are a symbol of the current autocratic regime. Expect some supporters to try and bring in the pre-revolutionary flag – seen at Qatar 2022 – as a symbol of protest and standing against the current regime. It is technically prohibited under Fifa’s stadium regulations.
Iranian-American protestors gathered in Inglewood on Sunday, with some wearing MIGA (Make Iran Great Again) hats and one banner reading: “The Terrorist Islamic Republic’s Football Team Does Not Represent The People Of Iran.” They support Reza Phalavi, the exiled son of the late shah, and a return to a monarchy in their native country.
Potential in-stadium protests include booing the national anthem and turning their backs on the playing squad pre-match. An added complication – as incomprehensible as it sounds – is head coach Amir Ghalenoei ordering his team to stop the match, should such protests materialise. Ghalenoei is under instruction from his government to halt proceedings if pre-revolutionary flags are brandished or if negative chanting is audible.
Fifa have been told of such plans. Iran’s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali last week emphasised that Ghalenoei would “definitely be responsible for stopping the match.” It’s worth noting that Donyamali also insisted back in March that Iran can’t compete “under no circumstances” at the World Cup. In addition, Fifa’s regulations dictate that only the referee can stop a match. But as Senegal showed at the AFCON final, a coach can influence proceedings.
Whatever occurs, fans of “Team Melli” are likely to outnumber their counterparts from Oceania. It will make for a raucous occasion. On the pitch, with a world ranking of 20 compared to New Zealand at 85, Iran are the favourites, even without the “Iranian Messi” Sardar Azmoun, allegedly expelled from the national team for disloyalty to the country after publishing photos of himself with the UAE prime minister in March.
And in a group with Belgium (top seeds and favourites to finish top) and Egypt, Iran will fancy their chances of progressing to the knockout phase. Who could they face in the last 32? Well, the unimaginable is actually not so unfathomable. If Iran finish second in their group and the United States also come home second in Group D, the teams will face each other in Dallas on 3 July, one day before USA’s Independence Day.
The teams actually played each other last time out in Qatar, where USA won 1-0. At France ‘98, Iran claimed a 2-1 victory in what was then labelled the “mother of all games.” But given all the preamble, all the disputes and contention surrounding the biggest story in 2026 so far, a repeat match-up this year would undoubtedly be the most surreal match-up in World Cup history. And that, on top of the most perilous participation in World Cup history. We wait with bated breath.
