The other US-Iran standoff

FIFA is the only organization who specializes in corruption and have a side hustle in peace making

F*** Gianni Infantino & FIFI... \#BoycottTheWorldCup

FIFA President Gianni Infantino may be the only person left on earth who thinks he can reconcile the competing interests of Tehran and Washington. As American and Iranian leaders abandoned failed peace negotiations in Islamabad, Infantino is already weeks into his own shuttle diplomacy between the two warring nations. The head of soccer’s governing body is attempting to navigate between a country that doesn’t want to play on United States soil and a co-host that says he “doesn’t care” if the team does. Iran was among the first nations to win a spot in the tournament to be held across North America but since President Donald Trump began waging war against the country one month ago, its leaders are openly questioning whether their national team will participate. The country’s sports minister has demanded matches scheduled for Los Angeles and Seattle be relocated to sites in Mexico, a request that FIFA denied this week. “Gianni’s going to have to do two things,” said a North American soccer official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters within FIFA. “One: Convince Trump that it’s fine for Iran to play. And two: Convince Iran to be comfortable playing in the United States. The other options create a lot of dominos that would fall afterwards.” The standoff represents the biggest geopolitical challenge yet for Infantino, who has worked industriously to cultivate a close relationship with U.S. leadership at the potential expense of his support from FIFA’s 210 other member nations. Some within FIFA, including Secretary General Mattias Grafström, already found Infantino’s strategy to personally woo Trump excessive, according to two people familiar with the dynamics at the highest levels of the soccer governing body. “FIFA has consistently stated that it is looking forward to all teams participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026 to compete in a spirit of fair play and respect. There is no change to the match schedule,” FIFA said in a statement attributed to a spokesperson. “The FIFA President and FIFA Secretary General are fully aligned on relations with the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.” Now Infantino’s hard-earned ties to Trump are clashing with some of his organization’s core principles. Seeing a team that qualified on sporting merit not play in the tournament because of political tensions would be a severe blow to FIFA’s credibility — and to its leader personally. “There are several football associations that I’m sure are putting pressure on him to make sure that Iran participates. FIFA has important relationships with countries like Russia and China that are also powerful and important for Gianni Infantino to keep a good relation with,” said Miguel Maduro, a former Portuguese government minister who chaired FIFA’s Governance Committee. “So that explains why he’s trying desperately to find a way to guarantee that Iran will participate.” Iran claimed its World Cup spot in March 2025 by finishing first in its Asian qualifying group. The fans of “Team Melli,” one of Asia’s most accomplished soccer nations, began preparing to cheer on their team in the five-week tournament whose matches will be spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. But Trump’s political agenda interfered. In June\*\*,\*\* Iran was among 12 countries covered under Trump’s most expansive ban on foreign visitors, which — while explicitly exempting players and team staff — would likely prohibit all spectators traveling from Iran. (The full travel ban was later expanded to 19 countries, including World Cup competitor Haiti.) When Iranian sports officials prepared to go to Washington for the tournament’s l****** draw in December, the State Department did not approve all of the delegation’s visa requests. After Iran responded by threatening to skip the ceremonial event altogether, FIFA stepped in to mediate between the White House, State Department and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, a FIFA member. A small Iranian delegation, including the head coach, Ardeshir Amir Ghalenoei, ultimately attended the event at the Kennedy Center, where Infantino presented Trump with a novel “FIFA Peace Prize.” As tensions rose between Washington and Tehran, FIFA maintained contact with both countries and their soccer federations while largely avoiding public discussion of the changing dynamics. The Trump administration emphasized that security concerns would drive the administration’s decisions about what kinds of exceptions it would make to the travel ban, including for government representatives and others in an official delegation. “We want this to be a safe and secure World Cup,” White House FIFA Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani said in a January interview. “So yeah, of course, we want the teams to be here and to play…but it’d be foolish, in understanding what Iran is going through right now, to expect that we would just open our borders.” On February 28, the United States began attacking military, governmental and civilian sites across Iran in coordination with Israel. Iran responded with its own strikes on regional neighbors, several of which are also participating in the World Cup: Iran, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Giuliani publicly celebrated the airstrikes, which killed numerous Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on social media. “My heart is with the thousands of American service members’ families who were victims of the Ayatollah’s ‘Death to America’ mission. The head of the snake spreading that vile message has now been cut off, and I pray the Iranian people will seize their liberty,” he wrote. “We’ll deal with soccer games tomorrow — tonight, we celebrate their opportunity for freedom.” Days later, Trump was asked by POLITICO in an interview whether he wanted Iran to send a team to the United States for the World Cup.“I really don’t care” whether Iran competes, Trump responded. The remark reverberated across the global soccer community, given the expectation that the host nation should be committed to welcoming all qualified teams.

This is stupid and performative. There is a game the same day in Vancouver, which is about 120 miles from Seattle, between I think New Zealand and Denmark. Just swap the games so Iran and Egypt play in Vancouver. There are also a lot of Persians in British Columbia would love to go to this game. Besides, Iran and Egypt weren't too happy about playing the game in Seattle that was designated as the Pride game due to their religious bigotry. I doubt Denmark and New Zealand would care.