Iran's Football Nightmare: FIFA President Suggests Israel Could Host 2030 World Cup

This week, on the very same day as women were once again being barred from getting into a World Cup qualifier match at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium despite all promises from the Islamic Republic to the contrary, FIFA president Gianni Infantino floated the idea of Israel part-hosting the 2030 World Cup.

Such an offer has never been extended by FIFA to Israel before. An elated Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted about the exchange on Twitter, saying he and Infantino had met earlier on Tuesday. “During the conversation,” he said, “the FIFA president proposed a plan according to which Israel, along with other countries in the region led by the United Arab Emirates, will host some of the 2030 FIFA World Cup matches.”

According to Israeli media, Infantino also alluded to such an offer in a speech he gave at the 10^th annual Jerusalem Post Conference on the same day. “Nothing is impossible,” he told the audience. “We’ve talked a lot in recent months after the signing of the Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel. So, the offer of hosting [the World Cup] to Israel could be an option."

Several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, most recently Bahrain, have agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in the past two years. But the Islamic Republic of Iran has stuck to its four-decades-old official line of wanting to destroy the country by any means possible.

The last example of this pledge came as recently as on September 18, during a meeting between Ayatollah Khamenei and Olympic and Paralympic athletes. The Supreme Leader called on sports figures not to be "passive" in the "fight" against Israel. “The ruthless, genocidal, illegitimate Zionist regime is trying to gain legitimacy by participating in international sports arenas,” he said. “And the arrogant powers in the world are helping them. Honorable sports officials and athletes should not be passive in this area at all.”

For the last decade, Iranian sports has suffered in the global arena because of the implicit ban on Iranian athletes competing with Israelis. This has led to the suspension of the Iranian Judo Federation from international contests, and the threat of suspension by the International Olympic Committee. The country has also haemorrhaged talented young athletes who emigrated in protest against either the ban on facing Israelis, or the requirement of female athletes to wear hijab at overseas events.

So far the Iranian Football Federation has emerged unscathed. This is largely because in 1974, Israel quit the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) under pressure from the Arab federations, going on to join the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in 1992. This dramatically reduced the two teams’ chances of meeting on the pitch outside of large-scale FIFA events.

At the time Israel left the AFC, more than 40 years ago, the country enjoyed relatively normal, even warm relations with Iran. Now, the Iranian government does not so much as recognize Israel. Iranian citizens’ passports bear a message on the photo page that emphasizes they have no right to travel to the “occupied territories”.

Only once in its history has Israel qualified for the World Cup, in 1970. The Islamic Republic has therefore never faced the prospect of its team being expected to face Israel’s team at the World Cup, let alone consider what it would do if Israel ended up hosting the tournament.

There is precedent for countries with relatively non-established teams hosting the World Cup; Qatar will be next year’s host nation despite not having qualified once. This was therefore not a valid criticism for Iranian media to react to the news with.

Iran’s Tabnak news agency, which is closely aligned to the security services, as well as the Iranian state-owned International Quran News Agency (IQNA) and IRGC-affiliated Tasnim instead zeroed in on "Palestinian criticism" of FIFA’s still-unconfirmed decision. Infantino was set to meet with the Palestine Football Association on the same trip, but the Palestinians cancelled after learning he would be meeting their Israeli counterparts at a bitterly contested venue: the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, which is built over the city’s oldest Muslim cemetery.  

The real concern underlying these media reports, however, was that the Islamic Republic might have to force its national football team to boycott the FIFA World Cup in 2026. This, of course, is on the assumption that FIFA has not already suspended the team in four years’ time due to the ban on women entering stadiums.

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