Iran’s World Cup squad begins training at University of Washington as crypto meets FIFA

Iran’s national football team kicked off its World Cup preparations on June 25 with an opening practice session at the University of Washington in Seattle. The squad is gearing up for what promises to be one of the more intriguing opening matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup: Iran vs. New Zealand.

Seattle as a World Cup staging ground

The University of Washington campus is serving as Iran’s training base as the team acclimates to the Pacific Northwest ahead of the tournament. The city is one of the host venues for the 2026 edition, which is spread across the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Kraken and FIFA’s first crypto exchange deal

Kraken has been named FIFA’s first Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the 2026 tournament. It’s the first time a cryptocurrency exchange has occupied an official sponsorship tier for the world’s most-watched sporting event.

The World Cup final alone typically draws over a billion viewers globally.

The fan token gap nobody’s talking about

Neither Iran nor New Zealand currently has active fan tokens. National team fan tokens remain remarkably rare compared to their club-level counterparts. Clubs like Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, and Tottenham have all explored crypto sponsorships or fan token partnerships to varying degrees.

National football federations answer to FIFA and their continental governing bodies, which adds layers of bureaucratic approval that clubs don’t face. For a country like Iran, navigating international sanctions regimes makes any crypto partnership exponentially more complicated.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fan tokens for participating nations were virtually nonexistent, and 2026 appears to be following the same pattern. Platforms like Socios.io partnered with dozens of football clubs during the previous cycle.

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