FIFA is “focusing on ‘everybody participating’ in this summer’s World Cup in the wake of the American military attack on Iran.” Iran is due to play group-stage matches in June against New Zealand and Belgium in L.A. and Egypt in Seattle. It is scheduled to be based at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona. Iranian nationals are already prohibited from traveling to the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s “so-called travel ban” (THE ATHLETIC, 2/28).
There are “understood to be concerns around whether Iran, if its leadership remains in position, would permit its football team to travel to the US -- and potentially over whether the Americans would allow them in.” FIFA execs have “held crisis talks over the possible ramifications for the World Cup of the United States’ military strikes on Iran,” which have “already led to the cancellation of an England Lions cricket match due to be played on Sunday in Abu Dhabi” (London TIMES, 2/28).
