World Cup 2026: Fifa Dismisses Trump Envoy's Plea to Swap Iran for Italy

It is not every day that a World Cup squad selection becomes a matter of international diplomacy, but the suggestion that Italy could replace Iran at this summer's tournament in the United States has done exactly that. The idea, floated by Donald Trump's special envoy Paolo Zampolli and promptly shot down by sources close to Fifa, illustrates just how entangled sport and geopolitics have become in the build-up to the competition, which opens on 11 June across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Zampolli confirmed to the Financial Times that he had proposed the switch to both Trump and Fifa president Gianni Infantino, framing it in personal terms. "I'm an Italian native and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a US-hosted tournament," he said, pointing to Italy's four world titles as a footballing justification for inclusion. The request carries a secondary political dimension too: the Financial Times reported that the proposal was partly intended to ease tensions between Washington and Rome after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni publicly criticised Trump over his remarks concerning Pope Leo XIV.

Whatever its diplomatic intent, the suggestion has found virtually no traction with the governing body. Sources indicate Fifa has no plans to act on Zampolli's request. Rather than issuing a direct rebuttal, Fifa highlighted comments Infantino made last week in Washington, in which he stated plainly: "The Iranian team is coming, for sure." It is the clearest possible signal that, barring an extraordinary change in circumstances, Group A's draw remains intact. Infantino's choice to communicate through a positive affirmation rather than a formal refusal is itself telling: Fifa has no interest in elevating Zampolli's proposal to a matter requiring official adjudication.

A Proposal That Even Italy Does Not Want

What makes this episode particularly striking is the chorus of Italian voices rejecting the very idea of benefiting from political back channels. Economy minister Giancarlo Giorgetti called Zampolli's notion "shameful." Sports minister Andrea Abodi was equally unequivocal, telling La Presse: "Firstly it is not possible, secondly it is not appropriate. You qualify on the pitch." The president of the Italian Olympic Committee, Luciano Buonfiglio, said he would feel "offended" by such an arrangement, adding: "In order to go to the World Cup, you have to earn it."

That unified Italian rejection speaks to something deeper than wounded pride. Italy's football culture has long placed enormous weight on the credibility of qualification; the Azzurri's failure to reach successive World Cups in 2018 and 2022 prompted genuine national soul-searching and significant reform within the Italian Football Federation. To enter a tournament through political favour rather than competitive merit would undermine that reform narrative entirely, and would cast a shadow over every result Italy achieved in the group stage. Italy are ranked 12th in the world by Fifa, making them the highest-ranked absent nation, but ranking points do not open the door when a play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina last month delivered the definitive verdict on their qualification campaign.

Iran's Position: Defiant Participation Amid Uncertainty

For all the noise generated by Zampolli's proposal, Iran's path to the 2026 World Cup has been far from straightforward. In March, following US and Israeli air strikes, Iran stated it would not take part in the tournament, citing safety concerns for players and officials travelling to the United States. That announcement triggered a period of intense behind-the-scenes negotiation, with the Iranian football federation at one point discussing with Fifa whether its group-stage matches could be relocated to Mexico, one of the co-host nations.

Those relocation talks ultimately came to nothing. Infantino visited Iran's squad in Turkey in March and confirmed shortly afterwards that their fixtures would proceed as scheduled on American soil. Iran are drawn to face New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June, Belgium in Los Angeles on 21 June, and Egypt in Seattle on 26 June. By Wednesday, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani stated that the country was "fully prepared" to participate, a position that aligns with Infantino's repeated public assurances. The speed with which Iran moved from threatening withdrawal to confirming full preparation suggests the safety guarantees Infantino secured during his visit to Turkey were substantive enough to satisfy the federation's concerns. Infantino framed the matter in broader terms when speaking in Washington: "Sports should be outside of politics. Iran has to come if they are to represent their people. They have qualified, and they're actually quite a good team as well. They really want to play, and they should play."

The Rulebook Reality

Zampolli is not operating in complete ignorance of the regulations. Article six of Fifa's World Cup rules does grant the governing body "sole discretion" over what happens if a participating nation withdraws or is excluded from the competition, and explicitly states that Fifa "may decide to replace the Participating Member Association in question with another association." In theory, the mechanism exists. In practice, Fifa has shown no inclination to invoke it, and Iran have not withdrawn. The article is a contingency provision, designed for genuine emergencies rather than politically motivated substitutions, and Fifa's silence on it in this context signals how remote the governing body considers its application.

It is also worth noting that this is not the first time Zampolli has attempted this particular manoeuvre. He made a similar request to Fifa regarding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when he was serving as a United Nations ambassador. On that occasion, too, nothing came of it. The consistency of the approach suggests this is a recurring diplomatic gambit rather than a carefully constructed legal argument, and Fifa's consistent non-response suggests it views the requests in a similar light.

Trump himself has sent mixed signals on the matter, at one stage saying Iran would be "welcome" at the World Cup while also suggesting they perhaps should not attend "for their own life and safety." Those contradictory positions leave the White House's actual stance somewhat ambiguous, and the World Cup Taskforce set up by the administration had not commented publicly by the time of writing.

Iran's Response and the Wider Stakes

Iran's embassy in Washington did not hold back in its reaction to Zampolli's suggestion. A statement posted on X described the proposal as evidence of "moral bankruptcy" by the United States, and drew a pointed distinction between Italy's legitimate footballing achievements and what the embassy characterised as an attempt to exploit political leverage. "Italy has earned its greatness in football on the pitch, not thanks to political privileges," the embassy wrote. "The attempt to exclude Iran from the World Cup only reveals the moral bankruptcy of the United States, which is afraid even of the presence of eleven young Iranians on the field of play."

The language is strong, but it reflects a genuine anxiety within Iranian football circles about what geopolitical pressures might yet do to their World Cup participation. Iran have navigated the qualification process, earned their place in the group stage, and now find themselves at the centre of a diplomatic dispute that has nothing to do with the quality of their football. From that perspective, the Iranian embassy's frustration is understandable, even if the rhetoric goes further than many observers would consider proportionate.

Verdict: Politics Knocking on Sport's Door

The episode is a revealing case study in the limits of sport's capacity to insulate itself from geopolitical turbulence. Infantino's mantra that "sports should be outside of politics" is a worthy aspiration, but the 2026 World Cup is being staged in a country engaged in active military conflict with one of its participants. The idea that those two realities can be kept entirely separate was always optimistic; what Zampolli's intervention has done is drag that tension into the open.

What is notable, analytically, is how quickly and completely the suggestion collapsed from multiple directions simultaneously. Fifa offered its clearest signal without even needing to formally refuse. Italian officials, politicians, and sports administrators rejected the proposal with a unanimity rarely seen in Italian public life. Iran responded with defiance rather than any sign of retreat. The proposal managed to unite adversaries and allies alike in opposition, which is a rare kind of diplomatic failure. It is also, in a roundabout way, a minor vindication of sport's institutional instinct to defend its own competitive integrity, however imperfectly that instinct is applied in other contexts.

For Italy, the harder conversation remains the one happening within the Azzurri themselves. Three consecutive absences from the World Cup would represent an extraordinary fall for a four-time champion. Political shortcuts, even if anyone were offering them seriously, cannot paper over the structural problems in Italian football that a play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina has once again exposed. The work of rebuilding must be done on training pitches, not in diplomatic salons. And for Iran, the message from Infantino is as clear as it can be: the group stage fixtures are set, the opponents are confirmed, and football's governing body expects them to be in Los Angeles on 15 June, ready to play.

Sources: Match and event information, quotes, and regulatory details drawn from BBC Sport's reporting by Dan Roan and Flora Snelson, published 23 April 2026.