Iraq’s national soccer team will travel to Mexico to play its 2026 World Cup playoff match despite travel difficulties caused by the war in the Middle East, Iraqi Football Federation president Adnan Dirjal confirmed on Saturday.
“The national team will depart at the end of the week for Mexico on a private plane, and we have managed to contact some of the clubs where our professional players compete so they can join the team earlier than originally planned” for the match on March 31 in Monterrey, he said in a Facebook message.
Iraq will face the winner of the Bolivia-Suriname match, which will also be played in Monterrey five days earlier, for a place in the 2026 World Cup. The winner of that match will join Group I of the World Cup alongside France, Senegal and Norway.
Last Monday, Iraq head coach Graham Arnold of Australia asked FIFA to postpone the match in the intercontinental playoff, because many players and staff members are stranded in the Middle East due to the war, which broke out on February 28 following joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Iraqi airspace has been closed at least through April 1 because of the airstrikes, to which Tehran has responded with volleys of missiles and drones targeting Israeli territory and U.S. positions in the region. “Because of the circumstances and the challenges facing the region,” the Iraqi federation appealed to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Dirjal explained, thanking world soccer’s governing body and the Asian Football Confederation for their help.
Iran’s national team, for its part, has already qualified for the 2026 World Cup, but U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that it should not travel to the United States “for its own safety.” The possibility of Iran withdrawing from the World Cup, which will be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, was raised, which could benefit Iraq, but Team Melli rejected that possibility.
“The issue of Iran’s withdrawal is nothing more than talk, and there is nothing official,” Iraqi federation president Adnan Dirjal said.
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