{"id":113495,"date":"2026-04-26T10:28:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/?p=113495"},"modified":"2026-04-26T10:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:28:26","slug":"us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/2026\/04\/26\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><h3 class=\"lead text-justify\">TEHRAN (Tasnim) \u2013 Iranian footballers will be welcome at this year\u2019s World Cup, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said, distancing the US government from a proposal that Italy could take their place in the tournament.<\/h3>\n<div class=\"story\" data-readmoretitle=\"Read more\">\n<p>Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio denied that the government had asked the Iranian team not to come to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>No one \u201cfrom the US has told them they can\u2019t come,\u201d Rubio said of Iran\u2019s World Cup participation, The Guardian Reported.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio was responding to a reported proposal from Italy-born US special envoy Paolo Zampolli, who told the Financial Times he had floated the idea of Italy taking Iran\u2019s World Cup place to US president Donald Trump and football\u2019s world governing body FIFA. The proposal was dismissed out of hand by the Italian government and sports officials earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio said the proposal did not reflect the US government\u2019s position. \u201cI don\u2019t know where that\u2019s coming from, other than speculation that Iran may decide not to come, and Italy would fill their spot,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut that\u2019s if they decide not to come on their own, it\u2019s because they decided not to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zampolli told the FT on Wednesday it would be a \u201cdream\u201d to see Italy at the finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada despite the fact they lost in a qualification playoff last month.\u00a0 However, Italy\u2019s sports minister Andrea Abodi said on Thursday that a reinstatement of Italy \u201cfirst, is not possible; second, is not appropriate, you qualify on the pitch\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Iranian embassy to Rome responded saying that the suggestion showed US \u201cmoral bankruptcy\u201d and that Italy did not need \u201cpolitical privileges\u201d to demonstrate its football greatness.<\/p>\n<p>Tasnim News Agency<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TEHRAN (Tasnim) \u2013 Iranian footballers will be welcome at this year\u2019s World Cup, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said, distancing the US government from a proposal that Italy could take their place in the tournament. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio denied that the government had asked the Iranian team not to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/2026\/04\/26\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-3"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup - Iran Mirror<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/2026\/04\/26\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup - Iran Mirror\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TEHRAN (Tasnim) \u2013 Iranian footballers will be welcome at this year\u2019s World Cup, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said, distancing the US government from a proposal that Italy could take their place in the tournament. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio denied that the government had asked the Iranian team not to &hellip; Continue reading US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/2026\/04\/26\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Iran Mirror\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T04:28:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2608.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"557\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"islam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"islam\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"islam\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8d3b3c1575c0a3c8506bbee3d624a268\"},\"headline\":\"US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T04:28:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":304,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/2608.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"News 3\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.iranmirrorbd.com\\\/en\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/26\\\/us-says-iran-players-welcome-at-2026-world-cup\\\/\",\"name\":\"US Says Iran Players Welcome at 2026 World Cup - 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