“Gianni (Infantino) is fantastic. Is my friendand we talked about the matter; told me: ‘do what you want. You can accept them. You can not accept them. You don’t have to have them (in the country),’” Trump said at an event held in the White House.
The Republican responded in this way when informed that, a few hours before, Infantino had confirmed that, despite the war started by USA against the islamic republic In February, Iran will take part in the World Cup.
“Well, yes. Gianni has decided, then that seems fine to me“He assured upon learning of the announcement made this Thursday at the 76th FIFA Congress held in the Canadian city of Vancouver.
“They probably have a good team. Do they have it? Do you know if they have it? I have no idea. In fact, it would be hard to believe,” he then joked. trump.
When asked what would happen if the Iranian team ends up winning the tournament, trump He replied, “Well, if they win we’ll have to worry about that.”
Despite the announcement of Infantinothe Iranian federation was not present at the congress of the FIFA. The president of his federation, Mehdi Taj, was expected to attend, but, according to the Tasnim news agency, he had to return to Iran along with the rest of his expedition due to “the inappropriate behavior of immigration officials” at the Toronto airport.
Iran qualified after topping group A in the third round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying phase and in the World It is framed in group G with three games, scheduled in Los Angeles (against New Zealand and Belgium) and in Seattle (against Egypt).
However, their participation in the tournament was complicated by the escalation of war that began last February between the United States, Israel and Iran. At the beginning of March, Mehdi Taj said he did not know if his team would be able to play the World Cup matches after the American and Israeli bombings on his country.
The Iranian Sports Minister, Ahman Donyamali, even assured that the Persian team would not participate in the 2026 World Cup and Infantino wanted to calm things down by ensuring that the team will play its group stage matches in the USA, as planned.
Recently, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, indicated that there will be no problem authorizing the entry of the Iranian team into the country, but he noted that access will not be allowed for technical personnel from the federation of the Islamic republic who, according to Washington, has ties to the Revolutionary Guard.