Iran’s World Cup squad landed in Mexico yesterday under the shadow of a bitter diplomatic row, after the US — in open military conflict with Tehran — refused to issue visas for some team support staff.
Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei complained on arrival at Tijuana airport that “we should have been here last week because a 12-hour time difference needs two weeks of adjusting.”
He added: “Usually in these tournaments, before technical matters, ethical and human considerations must be respected — which I think for us it was not the case.” The dispute erupted just days before Thursday’s kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.
After departing from their training camp in Turkey a day earlier, the Iran team landed yesterday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.
The squad and their coaching staff left their plane amid tight security which included a contingent of Mexican national guard troops. Just a handful of fans waving Iranian flags were present at the airport to welcome them from a distance.
The Iranian team will be based in Tijuana throughout the tournament, despite playing their entire group stage in the US — two games in Los Angeles and another in Seattle as they tackle New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in Group G on June 15, 21 and 26.
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.
Ghalenoei thanked FIFA for its efforts to help secure entry, but said “we are upset about this behaviour. It has certainly never happened before.” Team captain Ehsan Hajsafi said he wanted to convey his grievance to FIFA about the delay in getting US visas. “Why so late?” he demanded. Hajsafi stressed the difficult backdrop for the team’s participation, as “in the last year, we experienced two imposed wars in our country.”
Iran’s team spent nearly three weeks at the training camp in Turkey, using their time there to apply for visas to travel to Mexico, Canada and the US. On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players finally received their US visas, Washington’s envoy to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X late Friday.
But Iran’s embassy to Turkey said support staff had been denied visas — 15 administrative and management staff are concerned, an Iranian diplomat and state TV said. The embassy slammed what it called “deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team” and called for FIFA “to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules.”
Adding to the tensions, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said Saturday 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.
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