VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino opened his address at Thursday's FIFA Congress by affirming that Iran will participate in the World Cup and that the team will play in the United States despite the conflict between the two nations.
“And the reason for that is very simple, dear friends, is because we have to unite. We have to bring people together. It is my responsibility. It is our responsibility,” Infantino said. “Football unites the world. FIFA unites the world. You unite the world. We unite the world.”
In an indication of how fraught the situation is with Iran's participation in the World Cup, representatives from the Iranian soccer federation were denied entry into Canada this week.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said it was her “understanding” that the Iranian officials were turned away, following a report by Tasnim, an Iranian news agency associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The report said Iranian soccer federation president Mehdi Taj and two other officials were denied entry at Toronto's airport.
Earlier in the week at the Asian soccer federation's congress in Vancouver, Iran's participation in the World Cup or whether the team's matches should be moved out of the United States was not addressed.
At the roll call for the FIFA Congress where all nations were named, Iran was announced as absent. Outside the event at the Vancouver Convention Center there was a small group of protestors holding Iranian flags.
Infantino has not wavered on Iran’s participation in the World Cup or in its matches in the United States. At one point, Iran asked to move its games to Mexico, but that request was rejected.
The World Cup starts on June 11 and the final is scheduled for July 19 with games in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
In contrast to concerns about an immigration crackdown in the United States ahead of the World Cup, Canadian officials speaking at the FIFA Congress stressed the nation's diversity.
“Canada has always been more than just a country on a map. It is a meeting place of cultures, languages, ideas and dreams. People from every corner of the world have come here with their stories, their traditions, their talents and their hopes together. These stories don't disappear. They become part of who we are,” said Peter Augruso, the president of the Canadian Soccer Association.
In his address to the congress, Infantino briefly addressed complaints about the costs of tickets to World Cup matches, but his comments were directed at the heads of the member associations and not fans.
“We sold 100% of the inventory that we put on the market, which is more or less 90% of the global inventory so far. And of course, we are always putting tickets on the market," Infantino said. "There are expensive tickets, yes, and there are also affordable tickets. And what is important is that all the revenues that we generate from the world go back to you, go back to the entire world and finance football in all of your countries.”
Earlier this week, FIFA announced it would pay out an additional $100 million to the nations playing in the World Cup to help cover higher-than-expected costs.
The FIFA Council agreed Tuesday to increase the basic payments to each federation by $2 million to a minimum of $12.5 million. The governing body is expecting revenue of at least $11 billion for the tournament.
Member associations had appealed to soccer's governing body to raise prize money because of cost concerns. FIFA announced in December that the winner of this year's World Cup will receive $50 million from a $655 million prize pool.
Argentina earned $42 million for winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, an increase from the $38 million awarded to France for winning the 2018 tournament in Russia.
But it's less than half of what Chelsea earned for winning the much less-hyped Club World Cup last year. That tournament had a total prize fund of $1 billion, with Chelsea apparently getting somewhere between $128 million and $154 million for the top prize.
Outside the FIFA Congress was a small rally of about 100 supporters of the Vancouver Whitecaps, protesting the possible relocation of the Major League Soccer team.
MLS has said it will explore all options for the future of the Whitecaps, including moving out of the city. The club was put on sale 16 months ago by its ownership group.
Uncertainty around the team is fueled by limited revenue options and a short-term lease at BC Place, which will host seven World Cup games in June and July, including Canada playing Qatar and Switzerland.
The 76th edition of the FIFA Congress brought some 1,600 of the top soccer officials from around the world to the city. The event was expected to generate approximately $4.9 million in local economic impact.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS soccer team rally to keep the team in Vancouver, Thursday, April 30, 2026, outside the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana suspended its congressional primaries Thursday as early voting was about to get underway while pressure mounted on Republican officials in other states to also redraw their U.S. House maps in light of a Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.
“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”
The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.
The governor's order suspended the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature.
President Donald Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state's congressional districts and urged Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court's decision.
While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court's decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.
“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.
The election suspension in Louisiana was denounced by some Democrats.
“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters -- Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed Louisiana’s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.
Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
On Wednesday, Florida became the latest state to redraw its U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.
The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.
Trump wants Tennessee to also take up redistricting in response to the court's ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state's nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority Black.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court's decision.
After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.
A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act. And the following year the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create its own second majority Black congressional district.
In response, Louisiana’s legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.
After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would most likely be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.
“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to Election Day.
Republican state lawmakers are reviewing which pending bills could be used to alter primaries and reconfigure congressional maps, said Louisiana state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, chair of the House committee overseeing redistricting efforts.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed from Nashville.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and members of the Congressional Black Caucus speak to reporters in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to strike down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
