With just 24 days remaining until the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup in the Americas, the Islamic Republic’s football team has departed for Turkey. There, they will hold their final training camp before traveling to the United States once the players’ visas are issued.
Head coach Amir Ghalenoei has taken a 30-man squad to the camp in Turkey, but the inclusion of certain names on this roster has stunned critics and followers of Iranian football news alike.
According to an informed IranWire source, following the outbreak of the war waged by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and at a time when “no one was thinking about football or the World Cup anymore,” advisors close to the head coach successfully pushed through a project they had been planning for months: lobbying specific players to secure spots on the 2026 World Cup national team roster.
Furthermore, two informed sources within the Iranian media landscape have told IranWire that domestic outlets have been banned from leveling any form of criticism against the football team, its players, or its coaches until the end of the World Cup. These sources stated that for government institutions at this current juncture, the football team has been elevated to one of the “regime’s red lines.”
