TEHRAN – The official championship trophy for the FIFA World Cup arrived in Tehran on Thursday from Sydney.

FIFA marketing executive Sarah Gandoin, Iran head coach Dragan Skocic, legendary goalkeeper Ahmadreza Abedzadeh and football federation newly-elected president Mehdi Taj attended the ceremony held at the Milad Tower.

This year's tour began in Dubai in May and for the first time, the trophy will visit all 32 nations that qualified for the tournament.

The tour will cover 51 countries in total.

The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.

Iran are in Group B along with England, the U.S. and Wales.

The trophy is awarded to the champions of the World Cup but remains in FIFA's possession, per regulations of the sport's global governing body. The team winning the tournament retains the authentic trophy temporarily and is later awarded the tournament edition trophy, called the Winner's Trophy, for permanent possession.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein