TIJUANA: Iran&#39;s World Cup squad landed in Mexico on Sunday under the shadow of a bitter diplomatic row, after the United States &mdash; in open military conflict with Tehran &mdash; refused to issue visas for some team support staff. Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei complained on arrival at Tijuana airport that &quot;we should have been here last week because a 12-hour time difference needs two weeks of adjusting.&quot; He added: &quot;Usually in these tournaments, before technical matters, ethical and human considerations must be respected &mdash; which I think for us it was not the case.&quot; The dispute erupted just days before Thursday&#39;s kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. After departing from their training camp in Turkey a day earlier, the Iran team landed around 5 am (1200 GMT) Sunday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, AFP journalists there witnessed. 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 United States &mdash; 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. &#39;Upset&#39; Ghalenoei thanked FIFA for its efforts to help secure entry, but said &quot;we are upset about this behavior. It has certainly never happened before.&quot; Team captain Ehsan Hajsafi said he wanted to convey his grievance to FIFA about the delay in getting US visas. &quot;Why so late?&quot; he demanded. Hajsafi stressed the difficult backdrop for the team&#39;s participation, as &quot;in the last year, we experienced two imposed wars in our country.&quot; But he stated &quot;the team is 100% ready&quot; and believed &quot;we can advance&quot; in its group matches.&quot; Another player, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, said the team&#39;s condition was &quot;positive&quot; after a good training camp. &quot;We are surely doing all we can to prepare for the first game against New Zealand.&quot; Iran&#39;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 United States. On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players finally received their US visas, Washington&#39;s envoy to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X late Friday. But Iran&#39;s embassy to Turkey said support staff had been denied visas &mdash; 15 administrative and management staff are concerned, an Iranian diplomat and state TV said. The embassy slammed what it called &quot;deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran&#39;s national football team&quot; and called for FIFA &quot;to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules.&quot; Adding to the tensions, Iran&#39;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. &quot;We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,&quot; Iran&#39;s envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters. That appeared to contradict what the team&#39;s spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi told state TV earlier. &quot;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,&quot; Alavi said. FIFA rules for World Cups stipulate that a team&#39;s coach must give a news conference on the eve of the match at the venue where the game will be played. US wary of &#39;terrorists&#39; Iran&#39;s Football Federation &mdash; whose chief Mehdi Taj was reportedly among those denied a visa &mdash; has described the decision as &quot;political interference in sport in its worst form.&quot; A US administration official did not directly address the matter of those whose visas were refused, saying only: &quot;We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.&quot; In April, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any problem would not be with the Iranian players but &quot;some of the other people (they) would want to bring with them,&quot; suggesting some had ties to the Revolutionary Guards, a group on the US terror blacklist. Taj himself is a former Guards member, Iranian media in the diaspora have reported. Daniel Mercado, working at a taqueria eatery near the heavily-guarded Tijuana hotel hosting Iran&#39;s team said he regretted the politicization of the sport. &quot;They shouldn&#39;t mix football and politics &mdash; they are two very different things,&quot; insisted the 38-year-old. The Middle East war erupted when the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28. An April 8 ceasefire, which largely halted the fighting, has come under strain from recent exchanges of fire.

Football

Middle East war erupted when the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28; an April 8 ceasefire, which largely halted the fighting, has come under strain from recent exchanges of fire.

Iran's World Cup team blast US visa row on arrival in Mexico

ANTALYA: FIFA president Gianni Infantino told AFP Tuesday that Iran &quot;will be at the World Cup&quot; and will play their group matches in the United States as scheduled, despite the Middle East war. &quot;Iran will be at the World Cup,&quot; Infantino said at half-time as Iran beat Costa Rica 5-0 in a friendly in southern Turkey. &quot;That&#39;s why we&#39;re here. We&#39;re delighted because they&#39;re a very, very strong team, I&#39;m very happy.&quot; &quot;I&#39;ve seen the team, I&#39;ve spoken to the players and the coach, so everything is fine,&quot; added Infantino, whose attendance at Tuesday&#39;s game was unannounced. Infantino went on to stress that Iran&#39;s &quot;matches will be played where they are supposed to be, according to the draw.&quot; The World Cup, being hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, starts on June 11. Iran are set to play their first Group G game against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15. They are then scheduled to play Belgium in Los Angeles on June 21 and Egypt in Seattle on June 26. Iran&#39;s participation had been thrown into doubt by the war with the US and Israel that broke out on February 28. &quot;For us, what matters most are FIFA&#39;s rules and regulations. We will comply with whatever FIFA decides. Every host country has made commitments to FIFA and must honour them,&quot; Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, the vice president of the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI), told AFP at the match. The FFIRI had said earlier this month it was &quot;negotiating&quot; with FIFA to relocate the country&#39;s World Cup matches from the United States to Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also said that her country is prepared to host Iran&#39;s first-round matches at the tournament if needed. &#39;Fruitful discussion&#39;Infantino initially said that US President Donald Trump had given assurances that the Iranian team would still be welcome. But Trump then stated that Iran&#39;s team should not travel to the tournament &quot;for their own life and safety.&quot; Iran hit back at Trump&#39;s comments, saying that &quot;no one can exclude Iran&#39;s national team from the World Cup.&quot; On Tuesday, Mohammad Nabi said Infantino had been en route from Mexico to Qatar. &quot;Having learnt that we were organising friendly matches here, he came to see us in person, and we had a fruitful discussion,&quot; Mohammad Nabi said. &quot;Given our history in this competition, it is only natural that FIFA should support the Iranian team. Mr Infantino is providing the necessary support to our national team and has given our players a great boost.&quot; Asked before the game if Iran would be at the World Cup, backup striker Dennis Eckert Ayensa told AFP, &quot;Inshallah&quot; (god willing). Iran, who also played a friendly against Nigeria in the Turkish town of Belek last Friday, crushed Costa Rica, who have not qualified for the World Cup, 5-0 on Tuesday. Skipper Mehdi Taremi, with two penalties, Ali Gholizadeh and Mohammad Mohebbi put Iran four goals up by the break. Half-time substitute Mehdi Ghayedi added a fifth in the 51st minute, by which time coach Amir Ghalenoei had started to empty his bench. Before the game, Iran&#39;s&nbsp;players wore black armbands and posed with photos of what officials said were young victims of the war, including those killed in an airstrike on a primary school in Iran on the first day of the conflict. The airstrike on the school in the southern Iranian city of Minab on February 28 killed at least 170 people, including students and teachers. The New York Times has reported that the preliminary findings of a US military investigation indicate that a US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school due to a targeting mistake.&nbsp;

FIFA president Gianni Infantino told AFP Tuesday that Iran "will be at the World Cup" and will play their group matches in the United States as scheduled, despite the Middle East war

Articles tagged with "Iran at World Cup"

Iran's World Cup team blast US visa row on arrival in Mexico

'Iran will be at World Cup' and play in US: FIFA Infantino

Iran's World Cup team blast US visa row on arrival in Mexico