Lionel Messi of Argentina celebrates scoring his team's first goal during FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament. Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images FIFA, the organizer of the World Cup 2026 soccer competition, says it will allow rainbow flags to fly among stadium fans at Friday’s crunch tournament match in Seattle between Iran and Egypt.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds. Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code,” FIFA said in a statement obtained Thursday by The Hollywood Reporter.
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The directive from FIFF follows the football federations for Iran and Egypt separately calling on the World Cup organizer to prevent any symbols, including rainbow flags, in support of the LGBTQ+ community in the Seattle stadium during Friday’s game.
Both Iran and Egypt are majority-Muslim countries and impose heavy penalties on members of their LGBTQ+ communities. The objections from the Iran and Egypt soccer federations followed well after Seattle’s World Cup organizing committee, which is unaligned with FIFA, earlier this year branding the planned June 26 game in Seattle as a “Pride Match” to coincide with the city’s annual Pride celebrations planned for this weekend.
It now turns out Egypt and Iran will compete against each other in their national team’s final group game on Friday in Seattle. The FIFA World Cup 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct does have rules on the size of flags and banners allowed in stadiums during tournament games, and disallows symbols of “discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group on account of race, skin color, ethnicity, national or social origin, gender identity and expression, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, birth, wealth or any other status, sexual orientation or on any other grounds.”
The geopolitical implications for the Seattle game include Iran, should it beat Egypt, setting itself up for a game against Team USA on July 6 to reach the quarter-finals. That potential clash would come as the U.S. and Iran continue attempts to negotiate a possible peace deal amid a fragile ceasefire following a regional Middle East war that began on Feb. 28.
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