Infantino: Iran 'will play in World Cup'; new Iran team protest
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends the inauguration of the 'Epic Album' exhibition, which brings together historical items from the Mexican men's and women's national teams, as well as from Portugal and Croatia, The Yancuic Museum. Josue Perez/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa FIFA president Gianni Infantino is pushing for Iran to participate in the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer despite the Middle East war. "We want Iran to play, and Iran will play in the World Cup," he told Mexican broadcaster N+ Univision in an interview.
"Iran represent their people - both those living in Iran and those living abroad," Infantino said, urging the country to participate. Infantino was in attendance on Tuesday when Iran played a friendly international against Costa Rica in the Turkish city of Antalya. Before the kick-off, Iran players held up photos of children who were allegedly killed in a US and Israel air strike.
few days earlier they had posed with school satchels ahead of a match against Nigeria to protest the bombing of a school in which at least 168 girls aged seven to 12 are said to have died. A US strike was reportedly responsible. Iran won Tuesday's match 5-0 in what was a tune-up match for the World Cup but due to the escalation in the Middle East it remains unclear whether the team will participate.
Iran doesn't want to play its group stage matches in the US as planned, but in Mexico instead. But Infantino insisted that "there is no plan B, C, or D - there is only plan A" for FIFA. Infantino stressed that the federation wants to ensure that Iran can participate in the World Cup "under the best possible conditions.
" He acknowledged, however, that the situation is "very complicated. " The US and Israel have been attacking Iran since February 28, while Iran is carrying out retaliatory strikes against Israel and countries in the region that have a US military presence. Iranian football federation president Mehdi Taj has recently said the team is boycotting the US, but not the World Cup, without providing further details, according state-run news agency IRNA.