Iran's national football team landed in Tijuana, Mexico, early Saturday morning local time after an overnight flight from Turkey, where they had been training for three weeks. The arrival comes amid diplomatic tension with the United States, a World Cup co-host and adversary of Tehran, after Washington denied visas to some members of the Iranian delegation.
Iran's football federation negotiated a last-minute relocation of the team's base from Arizona to Mexico, partly due to uncertainty about whether they would receive US visas. The US granted visas to all players on Friday, just ten days before Iran's first match, but some support staff, including "key management and administrative members," were not approved.
Iran will be based in Tijuana throughout the tournament, even though their group-stage matches are all on the US West Coast. This marks the first time in World Cup history that a host nation must accommodate a team from a country with which it is at war.
Iran's embassy in Turkey reported that 15 administrative and managerial staff were denied visas. Tehran urged FIFA to "hold the United States accountable for violating its regulations." Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told reporters that the team would need to enter and leave US territory on the same day as each match. However, team spokesperson Amir Mahdi Alavi told state television that the visas granted are multiple-entry, allowing the team to arrive one day before the first game and two days before subsequent matches.
On the US side, an administration official confirmed that "the necessary visas for Iran to participate in the World Cup, including for athletes and essential support staff, have been issued." The official added: "We will not allow Iran to abuse this system to bring terrorists into the United States under false pretenses," without directly addressing those denied. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier suggested that some in the Iranian delegation are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the US designates as a terrorist organization.
Iran is in Group G and will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and June 21, respectively, followed by Egypt in Seattle on June 26.
