The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, has been drawn into an unexpected political and sporting dispute after a senior U.S. diplomatic figure proposed swapping Iran’s qualifying spot for four-time champion Italy, a proposal that governing body FIFA has quickly rejected, multiple sources confirm.
The suggestion to replace Iran with the Azzurri came from Paolo Zampolli, special envoy to former U.S. president Donald Trump. Zampolli, an Italian-born diplomat, confirmed to the *Financial Times* that he had pitched the idea to both Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino. As a native Italian, he framed the swap as a fan’s dream, noting that Italy — currently ranked 12th globally by FIFA, making it the highest-ranked nation outside the 2026 tournament field — has the historic pedigree to deserve a spot, with four World Cup titles to its name. The *FT* also reported the proposal was partly intended to repair bilateral tensions between the U.S. and Italy, which emerged after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized Trump over his remarks about Pope Leo XIV.
Uncertainty around Iran’s participation has lingered for months, fueled by ongoing geopolitical conflict between Iran, the U.S. and Israel. Just last March, Iran signaled it might withdraw from the tournament over safety concerns following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, and the Iranian Football Federation had entered negotiations with FIFA to relocate its scheduled group stage matches from the U.S. to Mexico. However, that uncertainty has been repeatedly dismissed by top FIFA officials. Infantino explicitly stated last week that “the Iranian team is coming, for sure”, adding that “sports should be outside of politics” in remarks made in Washington. He emphasized that Iran earned its place through qualification, the team’s players want to compete to represent their people, and that Iran fields a strong squad that deserves its spot. In a March visit to Iran’s team camp in Turkey, Infantino already confirmed Iran’s U.S. group matches would go forward as planned, and Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani reaffirmed this month that the country is “fully prepared” to participate in the tournament, Al Jazeera reported. This is not the first time Zampolli has pushed for this type of swap: he made an identical request to FIFA ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup during his tenure as a U.N. ambassador.
For Italy, the rejection closes another door to what would be a dramatic late comeback to the tournament. Italy has now failed to qualify for three consecutive World Cups, after dropping a qualification play-off match to Bosnia and Herzegovina last month that solidified its exclusion from the 48-team 2026 field.
FIFA’s regulations explicitly grant the governing body full discretionary power to replace a qualifying team if a member association withdraws or is excluded from the tournament. Despite this rule, FIFA has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to keeping Iran in the competition, and has made clear no replacement will be pursued at this stage.
Iran is scheduled to play group stage matches against New Zealand on June 15 in Los Angeles, Belgium on June 21 also in Los Angeles, and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle. The 2026 World Cup kicks off across the three host nations on June 11. The White House World Cup Taskforce has not yet issued a comment on Zampolli’s proposal. Donald Trump has previously taken a mixed public stance on Iran’s participation: he has said Iran would be “welcome” at the tournament, while also suggesting they should not participate “for their own life and safety”.