{"id":1322,"date":"2026-03-14T10:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:19:25","slug":"iran-has-announced-it-will-not-participate-in-the-2026-fifa-world-cup-citing-the-ongoing-conflict-with-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/2026\/03\/14\/iran-has-announced-it-will-not-participate-in-the-2026-fifa-world-cup-citing-the-ongoing-conflict-with-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran has announced it will not participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, citing the ongoing conflict with the United States."},"content":{"rendered":"\n    <div class=\"xs_social_share_widget xs_share_url before_content \t\tmain_content  wslu-style-1 wslu-share-box-shaped wslu-fill-colored wslu-none wslu-share-horizontal wslu-theme-font-no wslu-main_content\">\n\n\t\t\n        <ul>\n\t\t\t        <\/ul>\n    <\/div> \n\n<p>The decision was confirmed on Wednesday by Iran\u2019s Sports Minister, Ahmad Donyamali, during an appearance on state television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donyamali said the withdrawal was driven by security concerns following the reported killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConsidering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup,\u201d the minister stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The expanded 48-team tournament will take place across the United States, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19. Iran had been drawn in Group G alongside Belgium, Egypt, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The minister stressed that the safety of Iranian citizens could not be guaranteed under the present circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur children are not safe and fundamentally the conditions for participation do not exist,\u201d Donyamali said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He further accused the US and Israel of hostile actions against Iran, claiming the country has faced two wars within the past eight or nine months that have resulted in thousands of casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran has been in conflict with the US and Israel since February 28 following the killing of Khamenei. According to reports, the war has left about 1,255 people dead and more than 12,000 injured within the first 12 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Persian nation had secured qualification for its seventh World Cup appearance after finishing among the top two teams in Group A of the Asian qualifiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-14-at-10.53.05-AM-825x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-14-at-10.53.05-AM-825x1024.jpeg 825w, https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-14-at-10.53.05-AM-242x300.jpeg 242w, https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-14-at-10.53.05-AM-768x954.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-14-at-10.53.05-AM.jpeg 828w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decision was confirmed on Wednesday by Iran\u2019s Sports Minister, Ahmad Donyamali, during an appearance on state television. Donyamali said the withdrawal was driven by security concerns following the reported killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. \u201cConsidering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neptuneprime.com.ng\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}