{"id":9501,"date":"2026-04-23T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/9501\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:59:08","slug":"italy-dismisses-replacing-iran-at-the-world-cup-after-suggestion-by-trump-official-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/9501\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy dismisses replacing Iran at the World Cup after suggestion by Trump official"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME \u2013 Italian sports officials say four-time champion Italy is not interested in replacing Iran at the upcoming World Cup<\/a> following a suggestion to that effect by a Trump administration official.<\/p>\n

Iran has not withdrawn from the World Cup \u2014 the team is currently preparing to play<\/a> in the U.S. despite the war in the Middle East \u2014 and FIFA has insisted<\/a> its group-stage games near Los Angeles and in Seattle will go ahead as planned in June.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times reported that Paolo Zampolli, the U.S. special envoy for global partnerships, had suggested the swap to President Donald Trump<\/a> and FIFA president Gianni Infantino<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all it\u2019s not possible. Secondly, it\u2019s not a good idea,\u201d Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi said Thursday.<\/p>\n

While Iran was among the first teams to qualify for the World Cup, Italy missed out<\/a> for the third consecutive tournament, resulting in the resignations of its national team coach<\/a> and soccer federation president.<\/a><\/p>\n

Luciano Buonfiglio, the president of the Italian Olympic Committee, which oversees all sports in Italy, also dismissed the idea of taking Iran’s place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would feel offended,\u201d Buonfiglio said. \u201cYou need to deserve to go to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti called the idea \u201cshameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zampolli has long been a part of the Trump family orbit, having introduced then-Melania Knauss to Donald Trump at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998. He regularly posts on social media about his meetings with Infantino, calling him the \u201cKing of Soccer.\u201d Trump last year appointed him as special envoy for global partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Italian native and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a U.S.-hosted tournament. With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion,\u201d Zampolli told the FT.<\/p>\n

In March, the New York Times reported that Zampolli had reached out to a top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, informing him that the mother of his child was in the country illegally as the two were locked in a custody dispute. She was ultimately deported.<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment. Its World Cup task force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, said it had no comment. FIFA also would not comment.<\/p>\n

The Iranian embassy in Rome denounced Zampolli\u2019s remarks in a comment on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball belongs to the people, not to politicians,\u201d the embassy said. \u201cItaly earned its soccer prowess on the field, not thanks to political maneuvers. The attempt to exclude Iran from the World Cup shows only the \u2018moral bankruptcy\u2019 of the United States, which fears even the presence of 11 young Iranians on the field of play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s status at the World Cup, which starts in June, has been a source of debate and concern since the U.S. and Israel launched military attacks on the country in February.<\/p>\n

Trump in March discouraged Iran from participating<\/a> in the tournament, citing safety concerns.<\/p>\n

FIFA <\/a> has consistently said Iran will stick to the World Cup schedule decided last December, and refused to negotiate any suggestion <\/a> of moving the team\u2019s games to co-host Mexico.<\/p>\n

An Iranian government spokesperson said Wednesday that the men\u2019s national team<\/a> is preparing for \u201cproud and successful participation\u201d in its World Cup games in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Iran earned one of eight guaranteed World Cup places allocated to the Asian Football Confederation. Should Iran pull out, in theory the replacement should be the United Arab Emirates, the highest-ranked Asian team that didn’t qualify.<\/p>\n

One possible element of uncertainty is the language of the World Cup tournament rules.<\/p>\n

FIFA wrote that it can decide to replace a withdrawn team \u201cwith another association,\u201d though without specifying the replacement must come from the same continental confederation.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Dunbar reported from Geneva. White House reporter Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2013 Italian sports officials say four-time champion Italy is not interested in replacing Iran at the upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1792,319,1051,6808,5,7070,7071,6807,129,5360,243],"class_list":{"0":"post-9501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-andrea-abodi","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-giancarlo-giorgetti","11":"tag-gianni-infantino","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-luciano-buonfiglio","14":"tag-melania-trump","15":"tag-paolo-zampolli","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-washington-news","18":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}