Italy’s repechage to the World Cup: Iran officiates its upcoming games
More signals are coming from Iran about the national team’s participation in the World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico, which has been in doubt since the Gulf conflict between Tehran, the United States and Israel erupted. While there is still debate over Trump’s envoy’s push to invite Italy to the World Cup instead of Iran, an official announcement has come from Tehran confirming the country’s willingness to participate in the tournament.
The Iranian national team will face North Macedonia in a friendly match in preparation for the World Cup. According to Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi, Tehran’s selection will play a friendly match in Turkey against the national team of North Macedonia, which eliminated the Azzurri in the World Playoffs in 2022, as part of the preparation for the World Cup.
The date and venue of the match will be announced soon by the Iranian Football Federation. The Iranian team is scheduled to depart for Turkey on May 20, where it will hold its final preparation stage before moving to the United States for its final pre-World Cup training camp. In recent weeks, Iranian soccer officials had announced that the national team (“Team Melli”) will also face Panama in a preparation friendly. This match will replace the initially scheduled opponent, Puerto Rico. North Macedonia’s national team currently occupies the 67th position in the FIFA world rankings.
On the diplomatic front, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio clarified that the issue would not be about the Iranian athletes themselves: “The problem would not be the athletes. It would be some of the other people Iran would like to bring, some of whom have ties to the Revolutionary Guards. Whether the athletes will come or not will depend on Iran’s decision. What they can’t do is bring a group of Revolutionary Guards terrorists to our country and pretend that they are journalists and athletic trainers.”
Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali had already stated that “if the safety of the national team players in the United States is guaranteed, we will leave for the World Cup,” pointing out that the final decision will be up to the government authorities together with the Supreme National Security Council.
