No matter who lifts the trophy on June 19, perhaps the biggest story of the 2026 World Cup will be the fact that Iran played in it at all.
That they drew their World Cup opener against New Zealand 2-2 was almost irrelevant, given the extraordinary circumstances that brought them to North America.
A peace deal between the United States and Iran was announced on Sunday, bringing to an end a four-month war that has caused thousands of deaths including Ayatollah Ali Al Khameini, Iran's supreme leader. It has disrupted air travel, displaced many more thousands and virtually shut down the flow of goods in and out of the Straight of Hormuz.
Through it all, Iran’s participation at the global finals has been a hot topic. In March, Iran officials questioned how they could possibly play in a country they were at war with, citing security concerns and tensions with the US leadership.
Due to the closure of airspace, a training camp had to be arranged for the team in Turkey in April. Even then, Iran being at the World Cup remained uncertain.
In May, Fifa granted the Iran football federation’s request to move their World Cup base from Arizona to Mexico, this time citing visa concerns as well as fears over their own security.
On June 6, just days before the official start of the 2026 World Cup, all of Iran’s players finally received their visas to play their games in Los Angeles and Seattle. Several of Iran’s backroom staff were denied theirs.
The squad relocated to Tijuana, establishing a base camp near the US border. The plan was to travel into the US only for matches and immediately return to Mexico afterwards. Hardly ideal for participating in a global finals.
The team bus was escorted to training sessions by Mexico’s National Guard. Iran’s ticket allocation for supporters was withdrawn.
Finally, on Sunday, just hours after US President Donald Trump announced to the world there would be peace with Iran, the team flew to Los Angeles ahead of their first fixture. Snipers watched from rooftops as the team’s plane touched down at LAX.
So when the team took to the field to face New Zealand at the Los Angeles Stadium, California, few would have thought they would produce the best game of the group phase so far.
They started bright, pinging the ball around like a side whose sole focus had been football all along.
But they trailed after only seven minutes. New Zealand had hardly touched the ball when a long ball was fired up to captain Chris Wood. The tall striker was allowed to bring the ball down on his chest unopposed by any Iranian defender.
A series of intricate passes between Wood, Elijah Just, and Sarpeet Singh ended with Wood nudging the ball into Just’s path for the Motherwell playmaker to fire the ball high into Alireza Beiranvand’s net.
Just, the game’s standout player, sparkled throughout, but it was Wood who almost doubled New Zealand’s lead, swivelling in the area before a desperate last-ditch interception by an Iranian defender.
Iran began to slowly get a foothold in the game and it was no surprise when they restored parity shortly after the drinks break.
Mehdi Taremi, who has over 100 caps for Iran, had rattled the post shortly before and Saman Ghoddos had sliced his shot with New Zealand goalkeeper Max Crocombe stranded outside his goal.
Ramin Rezaeian then began and finished the move that resulted in Iran’s leveller, finishing smartly with the outside of his right foot after a delightful first-time pass by Ghoddos.
Iran had a goal ruled out for offside just before half-time as Ali Nemati went too early before connecting with a Rezaeian free kick.
New Zealand restored their lead shortly after the restart and again it was the combination of Wood and Just that unlocked the Iranian defence.
Just drove the ball forward with purpose and a neat one-two with his captain presented Just with a sight at goal and he finished with aplomb.
The lead lasted barely six minutes as Mohammed Mohebi rose to guide home a header. The move started with a sumptuous crossfield pass that found Rezaeian. The right-back was afforded time and space to line up a cross and he picked out his teammate with precision.
No one could have blamed the Iranian players for being distracted. Instead, they gave a reminder of why they deserve to be at these finals. Regardless of geopolitics, Iran’s national team earned their place at this World Cup on merit, having won their Asian qualifying group ahead of Uzbekistan.
The UAE could finish only third in that group, and there was talk that, as the highest-ranked Asian team not at the World Cup, the Emirates might replace Iran if they boycotted the tournament or were kicked out.
That has not come to pass, and in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the UAE, Iran took their place among the 48 teams at the expanded World Cup.
