Iran’s World Cup squad has landed in Tijuana, Mexico ahead of the World Cup – amid a diplomatic row with cohosts United States, which is at war with Tehran and has refused visas for several members of the Iranian delegation.
The squad touched down shortly after 5am (1200 GMT) in the Mexican city, across the border from San Diego in California, after an overnight flight from Turkiye, where they have been training for the past three weeks.
The Iranian football federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico, due in part to uncertainty over whether they would be granted visas to enter the US.
The US awarded visas to all the players on Friday, just 10 days before their first match, but several members of the support squad were not given visas, including “key managerial and administrative members,” according to the federation.
The dispute comes days before the tournament kicks off on Thursday, when Mexico play South Africa in Mexico City.
Iran will be based in the city throughout the tournament, despite playing their entire group stage on the US West Coast.
When they do play in the US, it will be the first World Cup to see a host nation receive the team of a country it is at war with.
‘Hold the US accountable’
Iran’s team spent nearly three weeks at a training camp in Antalya, using their time in Turkiye to apply for visas for the three host nations.
On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players received their US visas, Washington’s envoy to Turkiye, Tom Barrack, said on X late on Friday.
But Iran’s embassy to Turkiye said 15 administrative and management staff had been denied visas.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy posted on X on Saturday, calling for world football’s governing body FIFA “to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules”.
Adding to the tensions, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said on Saturday that the squad had been notified that under their visa conditions the team must enter and leave US soil on the same day as their matches.
“We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,” Iran’s envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters.
That appeared to contradict what the team’s spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi told state TV earlier.
“The visas issued for the national team are multiple-entry visas, and the national team will arrive at the match venue one day before the first game and, for the following games, two days prior to each match,” Alavi said.
FIFA rules for World Cups stipulate that a team’s coach must give a news conference on the eve of the match at the venue where the game will be played.
‘Political interference’
Iran’s Football Federation – whose chief Mehdi Taj was reportedly among those denied a visa – has described the decision as “political interference in sport in its worst form”.
In response, a US administration official confirmed that “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”
Without directly addressing the matter of those whose visas were refused, the official added: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences.”
In April, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any problem would not be with the Iranian players but “some of the other people (they) would want to bring with them,” suggesting some had ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is on the US blacklist of “terrorist” groups.
Iran are in Group G and will play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, followed by Egypt in Seattle on June 26.
<small>Source: Al Jazeera</small>
