{"id":72500,"date":"2026-04-23T09:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/italian-sports-minister-dismisses-plan-for-azzurri-to-replace-iran-at-2026-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:01:06","slug":"italian-sports-minister-dismisses-plan-for-azzurri-to-replace-iran-at-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/italian-sports-minister-dismisses-plan-for-azzurri-to-replace-iran-at-2026-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian sports minister dismisses plan for Azzurri to replace Iran at 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Special envoy to Donald Trump suggested the idea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\u2018Firstly not possible \u2026 secondly not appropriate\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Italian sports minister, Andrea Abodi, has described a proposal for his country to replace Iran at the World Cup as \u201cnot appropriate\u201d, rejecting any idea that the <em>Azzurri<\/em> will be granted a last-minute berth at this summer\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday it emerged that Paolo Zampolli, a special envoy to Donald Trump, had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/apr\/22\/trump-envoy-seeks-to-replace-iran-with-italy-at-world-cup-says-report\">suggested Italy should be fast-tracked<\/a> to the World Cup despite their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/mar\/31\/bosnia-herzegovina-italy-world-cup-2026-qualifying-playoff-match-report\">shock defeat<\/a> by Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina in last month\u2019s playoffs. Zampolli proposed the four-time winners Italy replace Iran and said they would \u201chave the pedigree to justify their inclusion\u201d. But Abodi said that football\u2019s showpiece tournament should remain meritocratic.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/apr\/23\/italy-iran-usa-world-cup-andrea-abodi-paolo-zampolli-donald-trump\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special envoy to Donald Trump suggested the idea \u2018Firstly not possible \u2026 secondly not appropriate\u2019 The Italian sports minister, Andrea Abodi, has described a proposal for his country to replace Iran at the World Cup as \u201cnot appropriate\u201d, rejecting any idea that the Azzurri will be granted a last-minute berth at this summer\u2019s tournament. On &#8230; <a title=\"Italian sports minister dismisses plan for Azzurri to replace Iran at 2026 World Cup\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/italian-sports-minister-dismisses-plan-for-azzurri-to-replace-iran-at-2026-world-cup\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Italian sports minister dismisses plan for Azzurri to replace Iran at 2026 World Cup\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}