"He's trying desperately to find a way to guarantee that Iran will participate." That's not a critic talking. That's Miguel Maduro — former Portuguese government minister, former chair of FIFA's Governance Committee — describing Gianni Infantino's position heading into 2026. Desperate is a strong word. It's also probably the right one.
Iran earned its place the proper way. The team finished first in its Asian qualifying group in March 2025. The fans of Team Melli, one of the continent's most historically accomplished footballing nations, started planning trips to matches spread across the US, Mexico and Canada. Then Trump's travel ban landed.
The ban that changed everything
In June, Iran was included in Trump's broadest travel restriction, which covered 12 countries — later expanded to 19, including World Cup qualifier Haiti. The ban explicitly carves out players and team staff. Everyone else from Iran? Effectively locked out. The supporters who were meant to follow their team across three countries this summer may have nowhere to go.
It got thornier in December. When Iranian sports officials applied for visas to attend the tournament's lottery draw in Washington, the State Department didn't approve all of them. Iran threatened to skip the draw entirely. FIFA mediated between the White House, the State Department and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran. A small Iranian delegation eventually made it to the Kennedy Center — where Infantino presented Trump with something called a "FIFA Peace Prize." Draw your own conclusions about that particular piece of stagecraft.
White House FIFA Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani put it plainly in January: "It'd be foolish, in understanding what Iran is going through right now, to expect that we would just open our borders." Security concerns, he said, would drive every decision about exceptions — including for official delegations.
Why FIFA won't walk away
Maduro's explanation for Infantino's persistence is blunt: FIFA has relationships with Russia and China, both of whom have interest in Iran's participation. Walk away from Iran, and you're not just making a call on one team — you're sending a signal to two of the most powerful non-Western blocs in global football governance.
That's the bind. FIFA is sitting between a host government using its immigration policy as geopolitical leverage, and member federations — including some with serious institutional weight — who want Iran in the tournament. Infantino isn't mediating out of principle. He's managing competing interests that all matter to him.
Iran has qualified. The football case for their inclusion is settled. Whether their players can actually compete, and whether a single Iranian supporter can watch them do it in person, is now a question being resolved by diplomats and task forces — not referees.
