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FootBiz newsletter #148: Messi settlement, Iraq mess and Real Madrid's financial concerns
14 things you should know, and M&A Murmurs is back
Ed Malyon
March 10, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
More of the inevitable fallout from FIFA peace prize winner Donald Trump’s latest military incursion hit football this week, as Iraq requested the postponement of their inter-confederation World Cup play-off this week.
The formal request, broken by The Guardian on Sunday night, came as Iraqi airspace remained closed due to the ongoing rocket and drone strikes across the Middle East.
Iraq are due in Mexico later this month for a winner-takes-all game against the victor of Bolivia and Suriname. If Iraq can beat either South American nation (though Suriname is technically a CONCACAF team) then they would qualify for the second World Cup in their history — the previous one also, coincidentally, hosted in Mexico in 1986.
FIFA had been working with the Iraqi FA on logistics, with half of the squad currently sheltering in Baghdad and coach Graham Arnold in Dubai, but their proposal that the squad take a perilous 25-hour coach journey to Turkey in order to fly to Mexico was rejected out of hand.
Arnold is understood to have dismissed the idea out of hand, given the route would take his players through the northern part of Iraq where drones and rockets have been exploding in the days since America and Israel intervened to wipe out much of Iran’s ruling class.
One wonders whether they could just hand Iraq a place, rather than forcing them to make the journey to Mexico.
The only reason we’d suggest that makes sense as "Iraq are seen as the most likely candidate to replace Iran should their neighbours withdraw from the World Cup due to the war, as they are the next highest-ranked team based on the Asian Football Confederation qualifying tournament” per Matt Hughes.
The simplest solution for FIFA, however embarrassing, might be Iran withdrawing and Iraq given free passage, with the winner of Bolivia and Suriname then qualifying directly.
Nothing feels that simple right now though, so who knows?
Iran’s women’s team have been playing at the Asian Cup for the last week, hosted by Australia, but were eliminated at the group stage with three defeats, no goals scored and nine conceded.
The women had been branded traitors after refusing to sing the national anthem last week, prompting fears for their safety on returning to Iran and with reporters on the ground noting the squad was being chaperoned by pro-regime officials.
But five players are now in protective custody with Australian police after slipping away from their minders.
Protestors had assembled outside the team’s Queensland hotel as they prepared to board their bus to the airport. Security officials were seen scarpering back into the hotel to find the missing players, only to come up blank as the women were understood to have exited via a fire door.
Australian outlet news.com reported that the footballers had been in secret talks with government officials in over asylum claims. Early this morning in Australia, immigration minister Tony Burke confirmed five players were happy to be named and had been granted asylum.
The women were confirmed as Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi.
"They want to be clear they are not political activists,” said Burke, before confirming that talks had been going on over several days.
“They are athletes who want to be safe.”
