{"id":903920,"date":"2026-05-06T08:13:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/world-cup-italys-sports-minister-dismisses-calls-to-replace-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:13:43","slug":"world-cup-italys-sports-minister-dismisses-calls-to-replace-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/world-cup-italys-sports-minister-dismisses-calls-to-replace-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Italy\u2019s Sports Minister Dismisses Calls To Replace Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has dismissed a suggestion of Italy replacing Iran at the World Cup, calling it \u201cnot appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

US special envoy for global partnerships, Paolo Zampolli, appointed by Donald Trump, reportedly raised the issue with the President and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Sky News, Abodi said, \u201cItaly\u2019s possible re-qualification for the 2026 World Cup, which US President Donald Trump\u2019s envoy, Paolo Zampolli, has reportedly proposed to FIFA, is firstly not possible, and secondly, not appropriate. I don\u2019t know what comes first. Qualification is on the pitch\u201d.<\/p>\n

Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) President Luciano Buonfiglio says that he would not be happy if Italy were given Iran\u2019s place at this summer\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible. Second, I\u2019d feel offended. In order to go to the World Cup, you have to earn it\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood Iranian team officials have been part of FIFA\u2019s World Cup preparation meetings, with no request to withdraw from the tournament received at this stage.<\/p>\n

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Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has dismissed a suggestion of Italy replacing Iran at the World Cup, calling it \u201cnot appropriate.\u201d US special envoy for global partnerships, Paolo Zampolli, appointed by Donald Trump, reportedly raised the issue with the President and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. In a statement to Sky News, Abodi said, \u201cItaly\u2019s possible<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":903921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33316,644],"tags":[15365,5489],"class_list":{"0":"post-903920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italys","8":"category-world","9":"tag-italys","10":"tag-world"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}