Iran is set to play in the US for FIFA World Cup. Will that still happen?

(KTLA) – Saturday’s major military attack on Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces is impacting everything from international diplomacy to the game of soccer.  

The move by President Trump to strike multiple targets in Iran comes just months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. As the hosts, the teams from all three nations have automatically qualified to play.

Iran also qualified for the World Cup. One of the best teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Iran National Team finished atop Group A in the AFC World Cup Qualifying competition, sending them through at the first time of asking. Israel did not qualify.

While tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been high for decades – many arguments center on nuclear weaponry, which was one of Trump’s justifications for Saturday’s military action – the countries have rarely faced each other on the soccer field. Since 1998, the U.S. and Iran have met only three times.

In those three matches, each team won one, tied one, and lost one. The most recent game came when the two met in Group B at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar – Christian Pulisic’s 38th-minute goal (one he got injured while scoring) was the difference in a tightly-contested 1-0 win for Team USA that knocked Iran out of the competition.

The two times the U.S. played Iran were at the 1998 World Cup in France (a 2-1 Iran victory) and during a 2000 friendly match at the Rose Bowl that finished in a 1-1 tie.

Fast forward four years after the 2022 World Cup, and Iran will meet the U.S. in a literal sense, as the team is scheduled to travel to America for this year’s edition of the biggest tournament in........

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