Politics no stranger to World Cup, Men in Blazers' Bennett says

LOS ANGELES, March 16 : Politics at the World Cup is "nothing new," Men in Blazers Media Network founder and CEO Roger Bennett said, arguing that the tournament has long been a stage where national history, culture and conflict travel with the teams onto the field. 

Bennett, author of the new book "We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event," said he wrote it with the upcoming World Cup in mind, when the men's tournament returns to North America for the first time since 1994 and expands to a record 48 teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"The joy of the World Cup is that when two teams take the field, the nation's histories, the nation's politics, the nation's cultures take the field alongside them," Bennett told Reuters.

It remains to be seen whether Iran takes the field in June for its group stage matches in Los Angeles and Seattle amid U.S. and Israeli air strikes against Tehran.

Iran's sports minister has said that it was not possible for his nation's ​athletes to participate. An official withdrawal by Iran from the event, ‌which has ⁠not yet happened, would be a first in the modern era.

UK-born Bennett said the geopolitical tension around Iran would not be unprecedented in World Cup history.

He recalled the U.S. playing Iran at the 1998 World Cup in France amid lingering hostility from the 1979 hostage crisis, saying many Americans tuned in less for the sport than for symbolism.

Bennett described the United States' 2-1 defeat as a bruising moment for a men's program after American fans tuned in in the hopes of seeing their team "open up a can of whoop-ass on their nation's greatest enemy." 

"That loss probably set football back 20 years," in the U.S., Bennett said. 

Bennet