Italy’s repechage to the World Cup, a crazy lie heats up tempers
The web is a jungle and there are those who are at ease even when the issue at hand is very sensitive: the winds of war blowing between the United States and Iran are worrying an entire planet because of the possible consequences at the level of human lives lost while as far as money matters are concerned, the side effects of the crisis are already being felt almost everywhere.
Even soccer is an interested spectator because it is still unknown whether Iran will participate in the world championships to be staged in the United States (where the Asian team does not intend to play), Mexico and Canada. A genuine fake news story that has been circulating in the last few hours has been heating up tempers even though it would have taken very little time to verify it, beyond its near-zero plausibility: a self-styled deep throat claimed that Donald Trump had asked Fifa President Gianni Infantino to seriously consider Slovenia’s repechage and its inclusion in the group that will also see Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand at the start.
The geopolitical situation continues to make Team Melli’s future in the competition highly uncertain. Fifa has already rejected Iran’s request to move its matches from the United States to Mexico, as confirmed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who told Al-Jazeera, “Fifa has finally decided that the matches cannot be moved from the original venues. Relocation would make the logistics too complicated.” Iran would therefore have to play two matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle, on the soil of a country that Tehran considers co-belligerent in the conflict along with Israel.
As is well known, the New York tycoon’s current wife, Melania, is Slovenian: the former model was born with the surname Knavs, in April 1970 in Novo Mesto, when the tragic dismemberment of Yugoslavia was still far away. Slovenia did not qualify for the World Cup. It has been missing since 2010 and has never really been in the running to land in America: it has failed to achieve even one victory.
Among the most fanciful hypotheses circulated on the Web in recent hours was that, proposed by some South Korean fans on social media, of a group swap: South Korea would move from Group A to Group G, allowing Iran to play its matches in Mexico instead of the United States. An idea as suggestive as it is unfeasible, which Fifa has not considered at all. More concrete, on the other hand, is the hypothesis of a mini-tournament with two European selections (Italy and Denmark and certainly not Slovenia) and two Asian ones-with Nigeria and Bolivia among the possible participants-to fill the only remaining vacancy.
