Given tectonic geopolitical shifts and the coincidence of our 250th Independence Anniversary, separating politics from sports in this tumultuous year is unrealistic.
The start of the FIFA 2026 World Cup is looming. Though Iran qualified for the month-long soccer extravaganza, their sports minister just said that they won’t be coming. Minister Ahmad Donyamali reportedly told Iranian state television: “Considering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup.”
Iran says No
Probably the least disruptive approach to the complex scheduling and organization of the expansive forty-eight-team format would be to replace the Iranian team. The United Arab Emirates may be a good choice; that team comes from the same qualifying region and just missed out after a heartbreaking playoff loss to Iraq, which ultimately didn’t qualify either.
The UAE is currently ranked 68th in the world by FIFA, which is rather lowly but still higher than several teams that qualified. Indeed, New Zealand is also in Iran’s World Cup group, and they are only ranked #85.
Politically, the UAE’s participation would be less problematic. It is a solid ally with whom the U.S. maintains security, economic, and diplomatic ties, and it is one of the most liberal countries in the Gulf. Plus, from a commercial standpoint, they might also be preferable to merchants and vendors in the host cities because their fans are rather affluent.
As for Spain, President Trump is fed up with it for several reasons, especially its refusal to make its military bases available for Operation Epic Fury missions. He has threatened to halt trade with them, and described them as “terrible” and said, “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
Ritualized aggression: Trump and Sanchez (photo courtesy Haberler)
Anything? Including the World Cup? I sense that President Trump would not mind if they didn’t attend. That seems very unlikely, but strange things are happening. The leaders of World Cup hosts are not supposed to disinvite qualified teams for political motivations.
That said, FIFA President Infantino is keen to stay on Trump’s good side. Even the remote potentiality boggles the imagination, for Spain is ranked numero uno by FIFA.
Unless Sanchez, Spain’s socialist Presidente del Gobierno, further irks Trump, a much more likely scenario is that they show up and progress to at least the quarterfinals, where (as the brackets have it) they could very well face the U.S. If so, it would be hard for President Trump not to attend that potential match, which is scheduled for around July 9-11.
The spectacle will be fever-pitch, the chants in the cauldron of “USA, USA, USA” drowning out Spain’s national anthem. They’ll go all wobbly amidst the fervor. Remember the Maine? Remember Rota?
To hell with Spain! Game on!
