At the FIFA World Cup, Iran have qualified six times (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018 and 2022) but have never progressed beyond the group stages; they have however, won three matches: against the United States in 1998, Morocco in 2018, and Wales in 2022.

[14] Team Melli managed to surprise some in the footballing community[15] by securing one point in its first ever World Cup appearance against Scotland which saw Iraj Danaeifard cancel out an own goal scored by Andranik Eskandarian for the 1–1 draw.

During the 1980s, the Iranian national team did not feature in World Cup competitions due to the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88) and domestic football embraced the inevitable effects of conflict.

The Iran-US World Cup match was preheated with certain excitement because of each country's political stance after the Iranian revolution and the Iran hostage crisis.

However, in an act of defiance against all forms of hatred or politics in sports, both sides presented one another with gifts and flowers and took ceremonial pictures before the match kickoff.

[19] Iran played against Germany in the third game, losing 2–0 courtesy of goals from Oliver Bierhoff and Jürgen Klinsmann, finishing third in the group.

They failed to qualify for World Cup 2002, held in Asia for the first time, after an aggregate defeat to the Republic of Ireland, losing 2–0 in Dublin and winning 1–0 in Tehran.

[21] Iran started their Germany 2006 appearance with a match against North America's Mexico in Group D. Being 1–1 at half-time, defensive mistakes led to a Mexican 3–1 win, with goals from Omar Bravo and Sinha.

[22] The ban lasted less than a month[23] and as a dispensation was given to allow the Iran under-23 team to participate in the football competition of the 2006 Asian Games,[24] fixtures were unaffected.

Initial rumors and false reports were that all seven players were banned for life by the Iranian Football Federation, however, state-run media claimed that all seven had "retired".

[30] Iran renewed the contract with Afshin Ghotbi until the end of 2011 AFC Asian Cup and the team qualified to the tournament with 13 points as the group winners.

The newspaper Iran reported that Ali Karimi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Hosein Kaebi and Vahid Hashemian had received life bans from the Iranian FA for the gesture.

[32] However, the Iranian FA denied this claim in a response to FIFA's inquiry saying that "the comments in foreign media are nothing but lies and a mischievous act.

On 4 April 2011, former Real Madrid manager Carlos Queiroz agreed to a two-and-a-half-year deal to coach the Iranian national team until the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

[35] Under Queiroz, Iran began their World Cup qualification campaign successfully, defeating the Maldives 4–0 in the first leg of their second round of qualifiers.

Iran highlighted their position at the top of their group by defeating Bahrain 6–0 at home in the Azadi Stadium as well as inviting former German youth international Ashkan Dejagah who scored twice on his debut against Qatar.

Team Melli then drew Qatar and lost in Lebanon before defeating South Korea at the Azadi on 16 October with a goal from captain Javad Nekounam.

In their last qualification match, Iran defeated South Korea 1–0 in Ulsan Munsu with a goal from Ghoochannejhad, clinching their ticket to Brazil as group winners with 16 points.

These players include German-Iranians Daniel Davari and Ashkan Dejagah, Dutch-Iranian Reza Ghoochannejhad, Swedish-Iranians Omid Nazari and Saman Ghoddos, and Iranian-American Steven Beitashour among others.

Having received a controversial red card in the first half, Iran competed with ten men, managing to score goals late in extra time to draw the match 3–3.

[59] They then lost against Spain with a goal scored by Diego Costa, with video assistant referees denying an Iranian equalizer.

Having qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup earlier, Iran was drawn into group D, where they shared fate with Iraq, Vietnam and Yemen.

After the death of Sahar Khodayari, the 14–0 win over Cambodia allowed select Iranian women to enter the stadium for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

[72][73] Following two consecutive draws between Iraq and Bahrain, Iran was left with the possibility of being eliminated from the World Cup outright in the second round, leading to the sacking of Marc Wilmots.

[76] Iran's World Cup preparation friendly match against Canada at BC Place in June 2022 was cancelled by the Canadian Soccer Association amid opposition and mounting criticism, namely in regards to the Iranian government's role in shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.

[94] During the match, the Iranian players sang the national anthem again before losing to the United States 1–0 for the first time in their history and thereby being knocked out of the tournament.

[101] After the game, Iranian officials reportedly arrested ten teenagers in the city of Javanrud for celebrating the team's elimination from the tournament.

On 1 February 2014, Iran announced the addition of the endangered Asiatic cheetah on their 2014 FIFA World Cup kits to bring attention to its conservation efforts.

On 25 August 2019, deputy Sports Minister Jamshid Taghizadeh stated: "Women can go to Tehran's Azadi stadium to watch the match between Iran's national team and Cambodia in October for the Qatar World Cup qualifier.”[137] After the death of Sahar Khodayari, select Iranian women were allowed to attend the match against Cambodia in October 2019.

Win Draw Loss Fixture [143] The following players have been called up to training camp for preparation of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification against  North Korea and  Kyrgyzstan in November 2024.