When Iran qualified for the World Cup on March 25, 2025, few could have imagined the challenges that lay ahead.
More than a year later, Iran’s participation has become one of the most complex in the tournament. The Iranian team is expected to play in a host country, the United States, whose joint military attacks with Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader and triggered a conflict that is still ongoing.
This Sunday (7), Iran launched missile attacks against northern Israel, after the Israeli Defense Forces attacked southern Beirut, Lebanon. After the attacks, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said in a social media post that Tehran “must burn.”
Under this shadow of war, the Iranian national football team faced numerous challenges, including where they would stay during the tournament and whether they would be able to obtain visas to the US.
A saga two seen
Iran was one of the first teams to qualify for the tournament, and American visas for the players were only approved on Friday (5).
However, visas were denied to several members of the coaching staff, including the president of the Iranian football federation, Mehdi Taj.
The US State Department told the BBC that the visas required for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including those for players and essential support staff, have been issued.
However, he added that he would not allow the Iranian team to “abuse this system to infiltrate terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, says the national team has been notified that, according to the conditions of their visas, players must enter and leave American territory on the same day as their matches.
Iran moved its World Cup training center from the United States to Tijuana, Mexico, amid the war and after FIFA approved the move. The team had originally planned to be based in Tucson, Arizona.
Iran’s three group stage games will be played in the United States: against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and against Egypt in Seattle.
More than 40 years of tension
Relations between Iran and the US have been hostile for more than four decades. Since the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran and the hostage crisis that followed in 1979, the two countries have not maintained formal diplomatic relations.
Football has often been one of the few opportunities for direct contact between the two countries.
The most famous meeting took place at the 1998 World Cup in France, when Iran defeated the United States 2-1 in a match loaded with enormous political symbolism. Nicknamed by some the “Mother of All Games” due to the political context, the match attracted global attention and became one of the most memorable games in World Cup history.
Before the match began, the Iranian players presented their American counterparts with white roses as a gesture of peace, in a moment widely seen as transcending politics.
The two teams met again at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the United States won 1-0 and advanced to the knockout stages.
The possibility of a meeting between Iran and the USA during the 2026 tournament also increases interest. With the expanded format of the World Cup, the two teams could face each other in the knockout stage. Such a match would have a meaning far beyond football, given the war between the two countries.
Football united Iran — now, not anymore
Amid logistical problems, the relationship between the national football team and sectors of the Iranian population appears more complex than in previous tournaments.
The national team has traditionally been one of the few institutions capable of generating support that transcends political and social divisions. During the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, the team attracted widespread support from fans across the political spectrum.
That changed ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which took place amid nationwide protests following the death in police custody of young Mahsa Amini and authorities’ crackdown on protesters.
The team found itself at the center of a political debate, with some Iranians hoping the players would show solidarity with protesters and others insisting that football should remain separate from politics.
The 2026 World Cup comes just six months after a major crackdown on anti-regime protests in Iran, during which rights groups say thousands of people were killed.
Some fans continue to see the team as a symbol of national pride, regardless of politics. Others have become increasingly critical, arguing that the team is too closely associated with state institutions and should not be viewed separately from the country’s political establishment.
This does not mean that support for the Iranian team has disappeared. Football remains by far the most popular sport in Iran and millions of people are expected to follow the team’s performance across North America.
But as Iran prepares for another World Cup, the level of national consensus that once accompanied major tournaments seems less certain than in the past.
On the field, Iran hopes to achieve something it has never achieved before.
Despite having qualified for seven World Cups, they never made it past the group stage. The expanded 48-team format offers new opportunities, and Iran believes reaching the round of 16 is an achievable goal.
Whether football will remain the main topic is another question.
World Cups have often reflected the political realities of their times. However, it is difficult to remember another team that arrived at a tournament under such a combination of diplomatic isolation, military tensions, visa uncertainty and political division among sectors of its own fans.
