Gab Marcotti

um he's like he's like a giant and he sees all these people it's a weird it looks like a professional wrestler it's like 9-1-1 from ecw in there except he wasn't choke slamming anyone um but yeah uh this is ugly

Yeah, so a couple things to remember here.

First is that the first, as somebody once said, the first casualty of war is truth.

I think there's a lot of posturing here.

So first of all, it's not a decision of the sports minister whether Iran goes or not.

It's a decision for the Iranian FA.

Secondly, it's pretty obvious that right now,

since there's no peace, it's not a viable option.

Thirdly, and I hate to be brutal or glib about this, this dude here might not be there next week.

So I think that's up in the air.

Equally, Infantino coming out and saying this, yeah, of course,

It's his responsibility.

He's got to make sure that every country that goes to the World Cup is welcome and can get in and don't have visa issues, as we've seen.

That's been an ongoing thing.

I think the reality is FIFA want Iran at the World Cup.

I think the Iranian national team, Team Mali, has a significance that goes beyond the Iranian government, which is obviously deeply unpopular with the Iranian diaspora around the world, with most of them, and deeply unpopular, I think,

within Iran as well.

Now, if the war is still on, or it's unsafe, I think FIFA want to postpone having to make a decision on this as long as possible.

I wouldn't take what this guy says seriously because it's way too early.

Nobody's going to make a decision based on that.