The 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico City on Thursday, with the biggest football tournament on the planet beset by high ticket prices, geopolitical tensions and conflict in the Middle East.
Nine teams from the Middle East and North Africa will compete in this edition's expanded 48-team field.
It is the largest representation from the region in the history of the competition.
“It will be interesting to see the extent to which, during press conferences, their statements about the war, that there's even concerns about people coming from Gulf states who are here,” said Paul Poast, a professor at the University of Chicago.
Analysis'Football unites us': Fifa slogan faces World Cup challenge over Iran.
Perhaps none will draw as much scrutiny as Iran, a country with which the US, one of three countries co-hosting the World Cup, is at war.
Iran's players landed in Mexico on Monday, having been denied a base in the US.
They wore gold "#168" lapel pins to mark victims killed in a likely US missile strike on an elementary school on February 28.
Visa applications for many of its staff have been denied, and Iran's ticket allocation for the World Cup has been pulled days before their opening match against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.
“The Iranian hostage crisis is something a lot of people haven't got over,” said David Kilpatrick, a football historian and professor at Mercy University in New York.
“When the USA faced Iran before, it was a real show of unity and global citizenship: the absurdity of warfare, the futility of it, and that sport can bring reconciliation and friendship.
US President Donald Trump's immigration policies have affected staff members, officials and fans of other countries, including one Iraqi team staff member and a Somali referee who were denied entry at US airports in recent days.
Of the 39 countries under a full or partial US travel ban, four – Iran, Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal – will play at the World Cup.
