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  • Raiders take Mendoza with first pick of NFL Draft

    Raiders take Mendoza with first pick of NFL Draft

    The 2026 NFL Draft opened its three-day selection process in dramatic fashion Thursday outside Pittsburgh Steelers’ home stadium, drawing a record crowd of 320,000 fans to the outdoor event, where the Las Vegas Raiders landed highly touted college football star Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick.

    The 22-year-old quarterback was a near-unanimous favorite to claim the top selection after a historic 2025 college season, where he led Indiana to its first ever national championship and claimed the Heisman Trophy. With the selection, Mendoza becomes just the third player in NFL history to earn a Heisman Trophy, a national title, and the first overall draft pick in the same calendar year, joining elite company that includes Cam Newton (2011) and Joe Burrow (2020).

    In a break from draft tradition, Mendoza skipped the iconic red carpet walk and opening ceremony in Pittsburgh to share the life-changing moment with his family at his Miami home. In a playful, modern twist on the draft declaration process, the business graduate had previously announced his entry to the draft by updating his LinkedIn status to “Open to Work” — and he refreshed the profile less than 60 minutes after receiving the iconic call from Raiders management to confirm his selection.

    The franchise’s minority owner, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who is also Mendoza’s childhood idol, was quick to welcome the rookie to Las Vegas. Posting on social platform X shortly after the pick, Brady wrote: “Welcome to Las Vegas. Time to get to work.” Mendoza, who will join veteran quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and 2023 first-round selection Aidan O’Connell in the Raiders’ quarterback room, noted ahead of the draft that Brady has already committed to mentoring the team’s new signal-caller. “He has mentioned that whatever quarterback they select… he is going to pour into them and give them advice,” Mendoza said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”

    While Mendoza’s selection was widely expected, the first round of the 2026 draft was defined by unexpected picks, strategic trades, and heartwarming personal stories from across the league. Analysts had widely labeled the defensive front as the deepest position group in this year’s draft class, and the New York Jets lived up to pre-draft projections by selecting star pass rusher David Bailey with the second overall pick. The next two selections swung back to offense: the Arizona Cardinals took dynamic running back Jeremiyah Love at third, before the Tennessee Titans turned heads with a surprise fourth-round pick of wide receiver Carnell Tate, who appeared just as shocked as fans and analysts by the early selection.

    The New York Giants held two of the first 10 selections, and used the picks to shore up both sides of the ball, selecting pass rusher Arvell Reese at fifth and offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa at 10. The 20-year-old Mauigoa, who grew up in American Samoa, paid tribute to his roots with a custom collage of his homeland printed on the back of his draft suit. “I never thought I’d be here,” he said after the pick. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

    The Kansas City Chiefs, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 this past season and are in the midst of a roster rebuild, pulled off one of the first major trades of the night, moving up from the ninth selection to sixth to land coveted cornerback Mansoor Delane. “They weren’t really on me too much in this process,” Delane said after the pick. “But they said they just wanted to keep it quiet and make that sneaky move, and they made the best move of the draft so I’m excited.”

    Multiple other teams climbed the draft board to target priority prospects: the Dallas Cowboys moved up one spot to select star safety Caleb Downs at 11, while the Los Angeles Rams pulled off the most controversial surprise of the first round by selecting former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at 13. Simpson had been projected as a possible first-round pick, but few analysts expected him to be taken as early as the 13th overall selection, after only 15 career college starts. The Rams’ selection has sparked widespread speculation that the team is planning for life after veteran starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, the 2025 league MVP who turned 38 in February and has only committed to one additional season with the franchise.

    BBC Radio analyst Rob Staton noted that the Rams’ move hints at a long-term plan that was put in motion a full year ago, when the team traded with Atlanta to acquire the 13th overall pick. “There’d been little expectation that the Alabama quarterback would go that high, given he only started 15 games in college,” Staton explained. “You can’t help but wonder if the Rams, when making that trade a year ago, did so with a plan for the future at quarterback in mind. He does have some excellent throws on tape and he clearly has natural talent, yet his inexperience showed up when he started to feel pressure in the second half of last season. It’ll help that Simpson is working with a head coach like Sean McVay, but there’s no substitute for game experience.”

    Elsewhere in the first round, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled off a last-minute trade to jump in front of the host Pittsburgh Steelers and select wide receiver Makai Lemon at 20th overall. The Steelers responded by selecting Nigerian-born offensive tackle Max Iheanachor, who moved to the United States at age 13. First-round picks featured many legacy prospects as well: Washington Commanders selected pass rusher Sonny Styles, the 21-year-old son of Super Bowl-winning linebacker Lorenzo Styles Sr., whose older brother Lorenzo Jr. is also expected to be selected later in the draft. “He’s my best friend, my inspiration,” Sonny Styles said. “We’ve dreamed about this since we were five years old so to see it all happen, we’re living out the dream, but it’s just the beginning.”

    Day one of the draft saw eight total trades shake up the selection order, with six teams finishing the first round holding two selections, while the New York Jets ended up with three first-round picks after jumping back into the round to select wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. The draft will continue Friday with rounds two and three, before concluding Saturday with rounds four through seven.

  • Not so Api days: Wests Tigers hooker Api Koroisau facing three-match ban for hip-drop tackle

    Not so Api days: Wests Tigers hooker Api Koroisau facing three-match ban for hip-drop tackle

    One of the National Rugby League’s most in-form players has had his dream of a State of Origin recall derailed by a significant suspension stemming from a dangerous tackle in a top-of-the-table clash. Api Koroisau, inspirational co-captain of the resurgent Wests Tigers, has been hit with a grade 2 dangerous contact charge from the NRL Match Review Committee for a hip-drop tackle on Canberra Raiders forward Noah Martin during the Tigers’ Round 8 victory on Thursday.

    The incident unfolded in the 25th minute of the tight contest, which saw the Tigers climb into a share of first place on the NRL ladder alongside defending premiers Penrith Panthers. Koroisau was sin-binned immediately for the tackle, and while Martin managed to play through the initial discomfort, the Raiders forward was forced out of the game early in the second half and did not return.

    The suspension carries particularly harsh consequences for the veteran dummy-half, who had emerged as a leading contender for a recall to the New South Wales Blues State of Origin squad ahead of the 2026 series opening match on May 27. Under NRL charging rules, Koroisau will serve a three-match ban if he accepts the early guilty plea, which would see him miss upcoming critical fixtures against the Cronulla Sharks, Melbourne Storm and Manly Sea Eagles. If he chooses to challenge the charge at the NRL Judiciary and loses, that ban will stretch to four matches. The Blues squad for the series opener will be announced just two days after the Tigers’ clash with Manly, ruling Koroisau out of contention for selection regardless of his decision.

    The setback is a particularly cruel one for the Wests Tigers, who have staged a stunning early-season resurgence under new head coach Benji Marshall, with Koroisau widely cited as the locker room and on-field leader driving the team’s unexpected climb up the ladder. After the match, Marshall publicly slammed the NRL’s officiating for inconsistency, defending his star player and questioning how the tackle should have been executed under current rules.

    “Yeah, look, it’s probably not a good time, but who cares?” Marshall told reporters after the win. “The inconsistency of the referees is annoying me at the moment to be honest. I know we won but some of the calls … it’s hard to understand. In Api’s case with the sin bin, I don’t know what he’s supposed to do in that situation. He’s making a cover tackle from behind, of course he’s going to land on his legs. There are heaps of things that didn’t go our way. I just think the fans deserve some consistency around the interpretations of the rules, and we’re not getting it.”

    With Koroisau set to miss the next three weeks, the Tigers have already begun planning for life without their starting hooker. Reserve hooker Tristan Hope is the frontrunner to step into the starting line-up, while in-form playmaker Jock Madden – who has recently filled in for injured half Jarome Luai in the halves – is also an option to shift into the dummy-half role. Two other players from the Round 8 clash received minor penalties: the Tigers’ Fonua Pole and the Raiders’ Corey Horsburgh accepted small fines for grade 1 offenses from the match. Koroisau has a history of four appearances for the NSW Blues, last representing his state in the opening match of the 2023 State of Origin series.

  • Images of dead Maradona rock trial of medical team

    Images of dead Maradona rock trial of medical team

    The long-awaited wrongful death trial of seven medical workers connected to Diego Maradona’s 2020 passing took a jarring turn this week, when graphic video and firsthand testimony detailing the football legend’s physical state after death were presented to the court. Widely celebrated as one of the most gifted athletes to ever play soccer, Maradona died at age 60 just two weeks after undergoing emergency brain surgery to remove a blood clot, while he was completing his at-home recovery. An official post-mortem examination determined his cause of death was acute heart failure paired with pulmonary edema, a dangerous buildup of fluid in the lungs. On Thursday, emergency room physician Juan Carlos Pinto, the first medical responder to arrive at Maradona’s rented home after his death, took the stand to share his observation of the star’s body. “He had widespread edema across his body—his face was severely swollen, his limbs held excess fluid, and his abdomen was distended into a round, balloon-like shape,” Pinto told the court. Attendees were then shown a 17-minute forensic video recorded by police, which captures Maradona on his deathbed wearing athletic shorts and a t-shirt pulled up to expose his severely distended abdomen. Pinto explained the abnormal swelling stemmed from a combination of excess body fat and ascites, a buildup of abdominal fluid that is commonly tied to advanced liver cirrhosis, a condition Maradona battled for years linked to his long history of substance addiction. Maradona’s daughter Gianinna, who was in attendance for the day’s proceedings, broke down in tears during Pinto’s testimony and hid her face when the graphic video was played for the court. The seven defendants on trial include a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, and a nurse, all charged with homicide with possible intent for the substandard care they provided to Maradona in his final days. If convicted, each could face between 8 and 25 years in prison. Both Pinto and a responding law enforcement officer confirmed critical gaps in medical infrastructure at the home where Maradona was recovering, noting no life-saving equipment was on hand to address a potential cardiac event. “There was no defibrillator, no oxygen supply, nothing at all,” Pinto said. “Nothing in the room indicated this patient was receiving formal at-home hospital care.” The accused have all flatly denied any wrongdoing, arguing Maradona—who publicly struggled with cocaine and alcohol addiction for decades—died from entirely natural causes unrelated to their care. This retrial comes after the first legal proceeding over Maradona’s death was thrown out last year, when it was revealed one of the presiding judges had secretly participated in a unauthorized documentary about the high-profile case. A new panel of judges was appointed to oversee the second trial, which opened last week and is projected to run for a minimum of three months as more witnesses and evidence are presented.

  • Guangdong city football league agrees raft of sponsorships

    Guangdong city football league agrees raft of sponsorships

    Ahead of its much-anticipated debut this weekend, the Guangdong City Football Super League has locked in sponsorship partnerships with dozens of enterprises, marking strong commercial momentum for one of southern China’s most ambitious regional amateur football tournaments.

    Organizers formalized the multi-tiered sponsorship deals at a signing ceremony held in Shenzhen, Guangdong province on Wednesday, capping months of preparation for the province-wide competition that brings together representative teams from all 21 of Guangdong’s prefecture-level cities. The opening match is scheduled to kick off this Saturday at Guangzhou’s iconic Yuexiushan Stadium, bringing together amateur football talent from across the economic powerhouse province.

    As a leading amateur football event in Guangdong, tournament organizers have built a structured, inclusive sponsorship framework designed to accommodate businesses of all scales. The layered system includes title sponsorship, strategic partnership tiers, official sponsorship, official supplier agreements, and dedicated support slots for micro-enterprises.

    Chen Xuhui, chairman of the Guangdong Sports Development Corporation, noted that the clear tiered structure has allowed the league to attract investment from both major local technology manufacturing leaders and small, community-focused micro-businesses, creating mutually beneficial opportunities for all participating partners.

    Beyond corporate support, the tournament has already seen explosive growth in fan interest ahead of kickoff. Lei Jianjun, deputy director of the Guangdong Sports City League Organizing Committee, shared that more than 80 companies of varying sizes have also signed on as sponsors at the individual city level across the tournament structure. Fan engagement has outpaced early projections: the league’s official ticketing WeChat mini-program drew more than 30,000 registered users on its very first day of launch, and total registrations surpassed 72,000 by Monday, just days before the opening match.

    The strong commercial and public turnout for the league underscores the rising popularity of grassroots amateur sports in China, as regional competitions increasingly draw both business investment and fan attention outside of top-tier professional leagues.

  • Could Italy replace Iran at the 2026 World Cup?

    Could Italy replace Iran at the 2026 World Cup?

    Speculation over a surprising last-minute reshuffle for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been swiftly shut down by governing body sources, who confirm there is no intention to remove Iran from the tournament and replace it with Italy. The rumor of a potential switch began after the idea was publicly put forward by a senior diplomatic representative of former US President Donald Trump. The proposal immediately triggered global football discussion, with fans and pundits debating the logistics and ethics of mixing political diplomacy with international sporting competition. However, multiple insiders close to FIFA have made clear that the organization will not revisit Iran’s already confirmed qualification status for the 2026 tournament, putting an end to the short-lived speculation surrounding a major lineup change ahead of the global showpiece.

  • Italy dismisses replacing Iran at the World Cup after suggestion by Trump official

    Italy dismisses replacing Iran at the World Cup after suggestion by Trump official

    A controversial proposal floated by a senior Trump administration official to replace Iran’s men’s national soccer team with four-time World Cup champion Italy at the upcoming 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S. has been firmly rejected by top Italian sports and political leaders, drawing sharp condemnation from Iranian officials as well.

    The idea of a last-minute roster swap was first reported by the Financial Times, which revealed that Paolo Zampolli, the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Connections appointed by former President Donald Trump, had pitched the swap directly to Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Zampolli, a long-time associate of the Trump family who famously introduced Melania Knauss to Donald Trump at a 1998 New York Fashion Week event, argued that Italy’s four World Cup titles and legacy in the sport justified giving the four-time champions a spot at the U.S.-hosted tournament, calling it a dream for all Italian soccer fans.

    However, Italian leaders across the board have dismissed the proposal outright. Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi laid out the clear Italian position Thursday, noting two core objections: first, the swap is logistically and procedurally impossible, and second, it is a fundamentally bad idea. Luciano Buonfiglio, president of the Italian Olympic Committee which oversees all national sporting programs, went further, saying he would personally feel offended by the suggestion. “You need to deserve to go to the World Cup,” Buonfiglio stated, echoing a widespread sentiment that berths in the tournament must be earned through qualifying, not political deal-making. Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti even labeled the proposal “shameful.”

    Crucially, Iran has given no indication it plans to withdraw from the tournament. Despite ongoing regional military conflict and public comments from Trump discouraging Iran’s participation over safety concerns, the Iranian national team continues preparations for its group-stage matches, with a government spokesperson confirming this week the squad is getting ready for “proud and successful participation” in the June tournament. FIFA has repeatedly reaffirmed that Iran’s scheduled matches in the Los Angeles area and Seattle will proceed as originally planned, and has refused to entertain proposals to relocate Iran’s games to co-host Mexico.

    The Iranian Embassy in Rome issued a scathing rebuke of Zampolli’s suggestion on the social platform X, arguing that soccer should belong to athletes and fans, not political maneuvering. “Italy earned its soccer prowess on the field, not thanks to political maneuvers,” the embassy’s statement read. “The attempt to exclude Iran from the World Cup shows only the ‘moral bankruptcy’ of the United States, which fears even the presence of 11 young Iranians on the field of play.”

    Procedurally, FIFA’s tournament rules leave limited room for a swap outside of qualifying protocols. Iran qualified for the tournament as one of eight AFC (Asian Football Confederation) allocated berths. Under standard precedent, if Iran were to withdraw, the next highest-ranked unqualified Asian team — the United Arab Emirates — would be first in line to replace it. While FIFA’s official rules do grant the governing body discretionary power to replace a withdrawing team with “another association” without explicitly requiring the replacement to come from the same confederation, that provision has never been used to facilitate a politically driven swap of this nature.

    As of publication, the White House has not issued any formal response to requests for comment on the proposal. FIFA also declined to comment on the reported suggestion, while the Department of Homeland Security’s World Cup task force also offered no statement on the matter. Italy, meanwhile, failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament, marking the third consecutive World Cup where the four-time champions missed out on qualification. The failure already led to the resignations of both the Italian national team head coach and the president of the Italian Soccer Federation following the qualifying campaign.

  • AFL 2026: Western Bulldog star Aaron Naughton will get a neck scan on Friday after his big fall

    AFL 2026: Western Bulldog star Aaron Naughton will get a neck scan on Friday after his big fall

    The Western Bulldogs have been hit with another devastating injury blow just one week after losing key young talent Sam Darcy to a season-ending ACL tear, with star spearhead Aaron Naughton carried off the field on a stretcher during Thursday night’s lopsided 66-point loss to Sydney at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium.\n\nNaughton was stretchered from the ground in the third quarter after a hard landing when he jumped to take a contested mark, leaving fans and teammates unsettled as medical teams attended to him on the pitch. Speaking after the match, Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge confirmed that the star forward was cleared to leave the stadium with the team after the incident, and will undergo full diagnostic scans on Friday to clarify the extent of his injury.\n\nBeveridge told reporters that initial assessments point to a soft tissue strain in the side of Naughton’s neck, adding that a major positive sign from early checks is that the 24-year-old showed no signs of concussion. “He’s going to go home now and he’ll have his neck looked at tomorrow, we’ll get back to you on that,” Beveridge said. “He appears to have strained down that side of his neck from the incident. The bright side is there’s no sign of concussion but we’ll have to report in once we get something more definitive from a scan.”\n\nThe latest injury setback comes on the heels of last week’s devastating loss of Sam Darcy, who was ruled out for the rest of the AFL season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament during the Bulldogs’ heavy defeat to Geelong. When asked about the string of personnel blows hitting the club, Beveridge acknowledged that the team has faced significant challenges in recent weeks, both on and off the field, during their current three-match losing streak.\n\nBeveridge pulled no punches in his assessment of Thursday’s performance, admitting that Sydney outmatched the Bulldogs across almost every area of the ground after a promising opening from his side. “We started off the game in good fashion and the things we spoke about beforehand came to the fore,” he said. “As the night went on, we probably needed our more experienced players really influencing the game, obviously Marcus Bontempelli was (influential) but we didn’t have enough elsewhere.”\n\nThe coach noted that while the club’s younger players showed glimpses of improvement as the match progressed, Sydney’s intensity, speed and spread across the ground proved too much for his undermanned side. The Swans’ pressure forced the Bulldogs into repeated uncharacteristic errors, turning the contest ugly in the final stages. “Fifteen back-half turnovers in that last quarter we gave up, that’s just extraordinary, that’s skill, that’s composure, it’s fatigue, it’s many things,” Beveridge said. “It turned really, really ugly for us. We have to work through that together and remain optimistic.”\n\nBeveridge admitted that these repeated late-game turnovers created the open opportunities that allowed Sydney key forward Charlie Curnow to boot a match-winning seven goals, adding that Curnow’s elite one-on-one performance was too much for the Bulldogs’ defensive unit to contain. “Curnow was quite exceptional one-on-one, none of our backs could stop him from taking those contested marks which is disappointing,” he said. “We think we should be better than that but he had obviously a very influential game.”\n\nWith the Bulldogs now stuck in a three-game losing skid, the side has barely a week to reset and fix their structural errors before they face a stern test next week, hosting an in-form Fremantle side that is pushing hard for a top-four position this season.

  • Injured Lamine Yamal ‘expected to be fit’ for World Cup

    Injured Lamine Yamal ‘expected to be fit’ for World Cup

    One of European football’s most exciting young talents has suffered a season-ending setback, as 18-year-old Barcelona and Spain forward Lamine Yamal confirmed a left hamstring injury that will rule him out for the remainder of Barcelona’s 2024-25 La Liga campaign. Fortunately for both club and country, initial medical assessments indicate Yamal will be fully fit in time to represent Spain at this summer’s FIFA World Cup.

    The injury occurred during Barcelona’s hard-fought 1-0 win over Celta Vigo this past Wednesday, just moments after Yamal scored the game’s opening goal from the penalty spot in the 40th minute. Immediately after converting the kick, the teenage prodigy began signaling to the Barcelona bench that he was in discomfort, before collapsing to the pitch clutching his injured left hamstring. Medical staff assisted Yamal off the field, and he left the stadium’s playing area straight for the club’s medical tunnel for immediate evaluation.

    Barcelona officially confirmed the details of Yamal’s injury and treatment path in a statement released Thursday. The club confirmed that the winger will undergo a conservative, non-surgical treatment plan to rehabilitate the tear, and while he will miss all six of Barcelona’s remaining league matches this season, the projected recovery timeline puts him on track to be ready for the World Cup kickoff in June.

    Yamal himself addressed the injury in a public post on his official Instagram account Thursday, opening up about the disappointment of missing the club’s run-in to the title. “This injury leaves me off the field at the time I most wanted to be, and it hurts more than I can explain,” he wrote. “It hurts not being able to fight with my team-mates, not being able to help when the team needs me. But I believe in them and I know they’re going to drop their souls in every game.”

    The young star also emphasized that he will remain engaged with the squad throughout his recovery, saying, “I’ll be there, even if it’s from the outside, supporting, encouraging and pushing as one more. This is not the end, this is just a break. I’ll come back stronger, more eager than ever, and next season will be better.”

    As defending La Liga champions, Barcelona currently hold a commanding position at the top of the league table, holding a nine-point lead over second-place rivals Real Madrid. The two Spanish giants are set to face off in a high-stakes clash at Barcelona’s Camp Nou on May 10, one of the six remaining matches Yamal will miss while recovering.

    For the Spanish national team, the timeline of the injury is a major relief. La Roja will kick off their 2025 World Cup Group H campaign against Cape Verde on June 15, followed by group stage matches against Saudi Arabia on June 21 and Uruguay on June 27. Yamal, one of Spain’s most dynamic attacking talents, is expected to play a key role in the team’s World Cup run, and his projected timely recovery removes a major source of concern for national team coaching staff.

    The report was first published by BBC Sport on August 16, 2025.

  • US to host Hungary in Billie Jean King Cup playoffs and France draws Australia

    US to host Hungary in Billie Jean King Cup playoffs and France draws Australia

    LONDON – International women’s team tennis competition the Billie Jean King Cup has unveiled the full lineup for its upcoming November playoffs, with the 18-time title-winning United States set to take on Hungary on home soil as it works to rebuild its momentum in the tournament.

    The U.S. squad, which advanced to the tournament’s final in 2024 for the first time in six years, suffered a surprising 3-1 defeat to Belgium in this year’s qualifying round earlier this month, knocking it out of contention for the 2025 finals and sending it to the playoff round.

    Hungary is expected to field rising star Anna Bondár, a consistent Billie Jean King Cup competitor who notched a career-defining victory at the Madrid Open on Thursday. Bondár defeated world No. 7 Elina Svitolina, marking the first time a Hungarian female player has beaten a top-10 ranked opponent since Timea Babos’ 2018 win over Coco Vandeweghe.

    Thursday’s official draw ceremony confirmed the full slate of November playoff matchups. France will host Australia in a rematch of the 2019 Billie Jean King Cup final, which France claimed on Australian soil in Perth; it will be the first time the two nations have faced off since that 2019 title clash. 2023 tournament champion Canada will travel to South America to face Brazil. Other pairings include Poland against Sweden, Japan clashing with Argentina, Thailand hosting Switzerland, and Slovenia taking on Indonesia.

    The stakes for the playoffs are clear: all winning squads will secure a spot in the 2027 Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, while losing teams will be relegated to regional competition for the 2026 season.

    Seven nations have already secured their spots in the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup finals, including qualifying victor Belgium, defending champion Italy, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine. China, as the host nation for this year’s finals, qualified for the event automatically.

  • No Fifa plans for Iran-Italy swap at World Cup

    No Fifa plans for Iran-Italy swap at World Cup

    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”.