As the U.S. wages a war against Iran, the nation is still set to co-host the Iran national team in the World Cup in a matter of weeks. But we might already be seeing an effort from the American hosts to keep Iran out of a World Cup it qualified for.
Iran, which reached the World Cup through the Asian Football Confederation, is currently scheduled to play its final Group G match at Seattle's Lumen Field on June 26 — soon to be renamed Seattle Stadium. You'd just never know that from the display outside the actual stadium.
There is a welcome installation that displays the flags of all the participating nations. However, Iran's flag is nowhere to be found. Instead, fans noticed that Italy's flag was on display despite the Azzurri failing to qualify for its third consecutive World Cup.
The U.S. envoy had floated the idea of replacing Iran with Italy at the World Cup. But the Italian federation flat-out refused to even entertain that idea. Simply put, Italy didn't earn a spot on the field and didn't want to be a political pawn.
Italy Sports Minister Andrea Abodi said via ESPN:
"Italy's possible re-qualification for the 2026 World Cup ... is firstly, not possible and secondly, not appropriate. I don't know what comes first. Qualification is on the pitch."
More officials slammed the idea:
Luciano Buonfiglio, the president of the Italian Olympic Committee, which oversees all sports in Italy, also dismissed the idea of taking Iran's place.
"I would feel offended," Buonfiglio said. "You need to deserve to go to the World Cup."
Now, it's unclear why Italy's flag still remains at Lumen Field, especially given the obvious absence of an Iranian flag. Fans speculated that officials assumed Italy would defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UEFA play-off and prematurely had the flag set up. But that was a month ago and nobody fixed the issue.
