“Iran will be at the World Cup,” Gianni Infantino told “AFP” on Tuesday, who came to attend a friendly match of the Iranian national team near Antalya, in the south of Turkey.
“That’s what we’re here for. We are delighted because it is a very, very strong team, I am very happy,” added the FIFA president, at half-time of this match against Costa Rica. The Italian-Swiss, whose presence had not been announced, sat in the stands shortly before the match kicked off.
Iran ‘boycotts the United States’
In mid-March, the head of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, indicated “being in negotiations with FIFA so that Iran’s matches (…) take place in Mexico” and not on American soil, as planned so far. “We are boycotting the United States, (…) not the World Cup,” he also declared.
Seeming to rule out any compromise – even though Donald Trump estimated that Iranian players would not be “safe” in the United States – FIFA said it wanted the competition, scheduled for June 11 to July 19, “to be held as planned”.
According to the official schedule, Iran will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles in the first round of the World Cup, then Egypt in Seattle. And its base camp for the tournament is supposed to be located in Tucson, Arizona.
