The world is in total chaos after the US and Israel's attack on Iran and the latter's response to all Middle Eastern countries with US bases there.
And all this when there are still 100 days left until the start of the most important football competition, the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada, a tournament for which Iran has also qualified.
But the predictions for the latter are not very good, as the president of the Iranian Football Federation himself questioned the presence of the Iranian national team in this edition of the World Cup, while criticism of the escalation of this conflict initiated by the USA and Donald Trump is increasingly strong.
What should have been a celebration, a 100-day countdown, is now an event surrounded by a sea of doubts, uncertainty pervading a tournament about which many questions have been raised.
FIFA, through its Secretary General, Mathias Grafström, said that it is monitoring the situation, but it seems very complicated for this organization to do something against one of the organizing countries, the USA, and one of its main partners, Trump, when there are just over 3 months left until the start of the World Cup.
The situation in the Middle East is increasingly destabilized. On Monday, one of the refineries belonging to Aramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world and a partner of FIFA and official sponsor of the World Cup, was bombed.
Meanwhile, foreign footballers, coaches and employees in countries near Iran such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman or Bahrain have remained stranded.
"We played a Cup match the day before and we had the day off. When we were near, the sirens started going off and the security guards told us we had to go back because they attacked the US embassy. We were scared, this has to end," says Miguel Angel Baltanas, a member of the technical staff of Al Muharraq SC in Bahrain.
But at this moment, it is not only Iran that is in doubt for the 2026 World Cup; even Haiti, which is returning to a World Cup after 52 years, is on the list of 14 irregular countries according to Trump's immigration policy and for this reason none of the Haitian citizens are allowed to enter the US.
It remains to be seen whether there will be any exceptions during the 38 days of the World Cup.
Another problem that arose on the eve of the World Cup is related to Mexico, the other host country of the competition, writes tch.
The violence in the country following the killing of Jalisco cartel boss El Mencho has affected Mexican cities that will host World Cup matches, such as Guadalajara, where the match against Spain and Uruguay, the last challenge in the group, is scheduled to be played on June 26.
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