"On June 11, when the ball starts rolling, somehow everybody forgets about everything else and starts worrying about the game." That's Victor Montagliani's answer to every security concern, visa problem, and geopolitical flashpoint surrounding the 2026 World Cup. The FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president delivered that line at the Business of Soccer conference in Atlanta on March 25, and it landed like a shrug dressed up as wisdom.
He's not entirely wrong. Every World Cup arrives wrapped in crisis. Argentina 1978 happened under a military junta responsible for tens of thousands of deaths or disappearances. Nobody cancelled it. The football went ahead, the world watched, and the junta used the trophy for propaganda. Montagliani's point about geopolitics being a permanent fixture of the tournament is historically accurate. Whether it's the right argument to make right now is a different question.
Iran's situation isn't a talking point — it's a live problem
Iran's football federation is in active discussions with FIFA about moving its World Cup group matches from the United States to Mexico. That's not fan anxiety or social media noise. That's a member federation formally seeking relocation because players feel unsafe on American soil following Donald Trump's public warnings about Iranian nationals.
While those talks continue, Iran trained behind closed doors in Belek, Turkey on March 25 — no player interviews, no coach access, a media blackout the team described as necessary to avoid distractions. They have friendlies against Nigeria on March 27 and Costa Rica on March 31, games originally planned for Jordan before the Middle East war forced a move to Turkey. Every logistical decision this squad makes is being shaped by a conflict happening hundreds of miles from a football pitch.
Travelling fans from multiple countries have separately reported visa difficulties and fears of being stopped by US immigration agents. These aren't hypothetical concerns being amplified by social media — they're affecting how real people plan whether to attend.
Infantino's position adds another layer
Meanwhile, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been drawing scrutiny of his own. His relationship with Trump — which included attending a Gaza peace summit and awarding the US president a specially created FIFA Peace Prize at December's World Cup draw — raises questions about the organisation's ability to push back on host government decisions that directly affect participating nations.
Montagliani addressed that indirectly: "Our main goal is to ensure that the security is top notch, which is why we have to have our relationship solid with every federal government — Canada, the US, and Mexico." A solid relationship with a government that's making one of your member nations feel unwelcome is a difficult needle to thread.
From a betting standpoint, Iran's group stage odds are worth watching. If their matches shift to Mexico, the travel, logistics, and psychological burden changes entirely — and so does their preparation. Any team operating under this level of administrative uncertainty heading into a World Cup is not operating at full capacity.
Montagliani's broader point may prove correct. June 11 will arrive, the tournament will start, and the football will take over. But right now, Iran's federation is trying to get their players into a country where the president has said they'll be at risk. That's not a story that disappears because a press conference needs it to.
