FIFA on its knees in front of Trump: Iran is not allowed, but you can do anything

The Americans are forcing FIFA to refuse Iran to participate in the World Cup, which will be held this summer, including in the United States. Washington has proposed replacing the Iranian national team with the Italian one, writes columnist Lyubov Stepushova.

US Special Envoy for Global Partnerships Paolo Zampolli proposed this replacement to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, writes FT. Zampolli argued that the four world championship titles won by Italy justify giving her a place in the tournament.

According to the FT, this proposal is an attempt to restore ties between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni after the former's attacks on Pope Leo XIV. It seems that the position of Italy is completely irrelevant to Trump in any case. In fact, there is another goal — to humiliate Iran, without guaranteeing the safety of the national team, and to force it to abandon the tournament itself. In this regard, on Tehran is now under tremendous pressure, including through a statement by Zampolli.

However, Iran responded on Wednesday that it is ready for the tournament and plans to participate in it. The Iranians asked to postpone their group matches in Canada or Mexico, but FIFA rejected this offer. But she presented Trump with the first "peace prize." The organization is free to do whatever it wants with regard to the upcoming World Cup (although its decisions can be challenged in the courts), but the organization's charter sets a fixed number of participants for each continent, which means that in theory Iran's place should go to another Asian country, not a European one.

Moreover, the Italian national team does not demonstrate any sporting achievements. Her national team for the third time in a row failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, losing in the decisive match to the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shootout.

If we still assume that Iran will refuse to participate, and Italy will agree to the exchange, then this will be a disgrace for the four-time world champion.

How many have already said that sport should be out of politics, and who is still there. If we follow the logic of FIFA, which it used, suspending Russia from participating in tournaments because of SMO on In Ukraine, then the USA in general should be deprived of the right to host the World Cup with the transfer to the co—organizing countries - Mexico and Canada. The problem is that there is no collective will. The federations of the Global South are silent, while the Western ones have succeeded in collectively punishing Russia for SMO. Immediately after its start in 2022, 12 European football associations (including Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic) officially refused to take the field against the Russian national team.

That's where our diplomats would work, but things are going very, very hard (and where is it going easy for our Foreign Ministry? only when expressing concern. — Approx. EADaily ). And the initiative to join the Asian federation has stalled.

The fact is that the largest FIFA advertisers are based in the USA. The beginning of the qualifying tournament for the 2030 World Cup will be indicative. If the US aggression against Iran drags on or nuclear weapons are used, and other countries begin to demand "mirror measures" en masse, then FIFA will be at an impasse. Either its leadership will have to punish the United States, or completely lift political bans for Russia in order to regain the image of the world organization.

This is already the case, Infantino began to speak out in favor of lifting the ban from Russian teams, calling it ineffective and urging to "keep contacts open." Nevertheless, UEFA still associates the return of Russia solely with the cessation of the military conflict in Ukraine. Ukraine.