Sports, Politics, Broadcast and Media Specialist
Briefed by the IRGC: Iran’s Strategy to Weaponize Football at the 2026 World Cup
Iran plans to weaponize football against Israel, that much has become clear over the course of the last few days. When a national football federation brings in intelligence and security officials to brief its players on how to act if war erupts, we should hear alarm bells and not treat it as a routine administrative matter. The recent disclosure that Iran plans to hold such briefings for its national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup should be understood as a political and moral red flag.
According to reporting from various media outlets, Iranian football federation managers, coaches and players are slated to receive “security briefings” from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other security agencies. The purported goal is to prepare them “for any propaganda use during the World Cup competitions in case a new military conflict erupts between Iran and Israel” according to independent Iranian news agency the IranWire. In plain terms, the briefings are intended not primarily to protect players, but to control their behavior and to enlist them into serving as surrogates for Tehran’s narrative.
The stakes and why this matters
First, this is not benign contingency planning. The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States (along with Canada and Mexico). The involvement of the IRGC, a designated terrorist organisation by the US and other Western states in “preparing” players should raise serious red flags for the safety not only of the Iranian players themselves, but also of Israeli and Jewish fans, and for the overall security environment at the tournament.
Second, it signals a blatant misuse of sport. Historically, global sporting events have offered authoritarian regimes an opportunity to seek legitimacy and soft power as absurd as that is. This is because sport and football in particular offers visibility, a veneer of normalcy and a global stage. Tehran’s decision to bring its intelligence apparatus into the inner workings of the national team is textbook political interference by a regime desperate to control the narrative. This threatens the very integrity of the sport.
Third, the timing and context amplify the danger. In November 2025, Iran announced it would boycott the World Cup draw in Washington after the US denied visas to several members of the Iranian delegation, including the head of the federation. Only days later Iran reportedly reversed that decision and said it would send a reduced delegation. The visa row underscores how geopolitical tensions between Iran, the US, and Israel are bleeding into sport, and how Tehran is increasingly treating football not as a game but as a strategic theatre.
Why the global football community should react strongly
For Israel, the presence of a delegation whose players and coaches may have been pre-briefed on how to perform propaganda as part of “national security” represents a real threat: games could be used as platforms for intimidation, orchestrated messaging, and even provocations targeting Israeli or Jewish spectators.
Moreover, allowing such rehearsed narratives from state-backed teams undermines the credibility of international sport. The world’s governing football body, FIFA, claims football should remain free from political interference. But this dual structure: national federation + national intelligence apparatus, is a direct contradiction of that principle. It sets a dangerous precedent, that international events can be hijacked by hostile regimes and turned into propaganda stages.
Allowing Tehran to get away with this would signal that political manipulation is acceptable and that the global game is ready to be used as a megaphone for state-sponsored hostility.
What must be done…and it starts before the first whistle
1. FIFA must act and act now. The presence of intelligence agents briefing a national team violates the spirit (if not the letter) of FIFA’s rules on political interference. If the Iranian federation does not disavow these briefings publicly and explain details in full with transparency, FIFA should consider sanctions or outright exclusion of the team, to preserve the integrity of the tournament.
2. World Cup hosts must ensure transparent, neutral security arrangements. Security briefings are extremely necessary ahead of matches for peace-of-mind and risk mitigation. They should be handled exclusively by neutral international or host-nation security personnel, never by a foreign intelligence organization implicated in regional hostility. These briefings should include detailed security responses for potential threats and political unrest globally at the time of the tournament.
3. Israeli and Jewish players and fans must receive concrete protections. It is not sufficient to rely on general stadium security. Organisers must commit to robust safeguards: isolation of opposing fans if necessary, emergency extraction plans, zero tolerance for any coordinated intimidation or propaganda tactics.
4. The media and public scrutiny must ramp up. Transparency is the best defense against state propaganda. Journalists should cover who exactly is conducting these briefings, what instructions are given, and whether players are being coached on messaging or behavior. This visibility can neutralise the advantage Tehran seeks through shadowy preparation.
Tehran’s strategy – a cynical embrace of sport as theatre
The fact that Iran a regime that in recent years has openly demanded that Israel be expelled from FIFA over the war, alleging “murder of athletes” by Israeli strikes, is treating football as a battlefield should surprise no one. Indeed, calling up sportspeople as political actors has long been a tactic for regimes seeking to smear, delegitimise or pressure Israel. But now, with the world’s biggest sporting event on the horizon and the US hosting, Tehran sees a golden opportunity. The opportunity for global visibility, forced proximity, and the chance to stage propaganda under the guise of sportsmanship. The uniform, the stadium, the games will be pure theatre for the rogue nation. And Iran’s regime is writing the script.
The moral line Tehran is crossing and why it matters for all of us
At its core, sport is meant to unite and to transcend politics, creating a universal language and a meeting ground. When a state seeks to exploit that arena to advance war-time narratives and turn athletes into mouthpieces, it violates the social contract of global sport that when relating to Israel global sporting organisation seem these days to care little about.
For Israel and for any nation that believes in fair play, human dignity, and the separation of sport from state-sponsored intimidation, there can be no neutrality. There must be not just condemnation, but action. Denouncing Tehran’s gambit is not enough. The global football community must draw a line now, before players step onto the pitch, before crowds gather, before stadiums are filled under the glare of lights that Tehran hopes to use as spotlights for its propaganda.
Because once you allow football to be weaponised, you lose more than just a game. With the current state of the global geopolitical landscape it is now more than ever imperative that Sport and especially its crown jewel the World Cup remain a neutral playfield, free from politics and political interference.
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