Trump warns Iranian World Cup team away from U.S. for ‘their own life and safety’
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he cannot guarantee the safety of the Iranian soccer team if it travels to the United States to participate in the World Cup later this year.
“The Iranian national football team is welcome at the World Cup, but I really don’t think it is appropriate for them to be there, for their own lives and safety,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Iran is scheduled to play three opening group matches in June in the United States: against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles and against Egypt in Seattle.
But Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said Wednesday that the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which led to the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials, would exclude Iran’s participation.
“Considering that this corrupt regime assassinated our leader, we cannot participate in the World Cup under any circumstances,” Donyamali said on state television, according to Reuters.
From time to time, war and diplomatic failures have led countries to boycott sporting events in which they planned to participate. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union and many Soviet-aligned Eastern Bloc countries then refused to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Russia has been banned from the Olympics and World Cup since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But the Olympic Games and the World Cup have long been considered diplomatic opportunities, complementing international competitions. Trump’s insinuation that Iranian soccer players would not be safe in the United States represents an extremely rare departure from the global commitment to athlete safety since the Palestinian terrorist group Black September massacred 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972.
Trump’s warning to the Iranian men’s soccer team also stands in stark contrast to his offer earlier this week to grant asylum to the Iranian women’s soccer team if Australia did not accept members who sought to defect.
