Iran's World Cup Team Sets Up Camp in Mexico After US Visa Standoff

Iran's national football squad touched down in Tijuana, Mexico, early Saturday morning, ending a tense few weeks of uncertainty over whether the team would be allowed into the United States for the World Cup. The players arrived just after 5 a.m. local time following an overnight flight from Turkiye, where they had been training for three weeks.

The move to base the team in Mexico came after a last-minute scramble by the Iranian football federation, which had originally planned to set up camp in Arizona. But with the US—a co-host of the tournament along with Mexico and Canada—at odds with Tehran, visa approvals were anything but guaranteed.

All 26 players received their US visas on Friday, just 10 days before their opening match. But the federation says 15 key administrative and managerial staff were denied entry, including federation chief Mehdi Taj. Iran's embassy in Turkiye called the move discriminatory and urged FIFA to hold Washington accountable for violating tournament rules.

Tensions escalated further when Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told reporters that visa conditions required the team to enter and leave the US on the same day as their matches. That contradicted earlier claims from the team's spokesman that multiple-entry visas had been issued.

A US administration official confirmed that visas for players and essential support staff had been granted, but added that Washington would not allow the Iranian team to "abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States." The official did not directly address the 15 denied visas.

Iran will play all three group-stage matches on the US West Coast—against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles, then Egypt in Seattle. But they'll be sleeping in Mexico each night, a setup that promises to make logistics as complicated as the diplomacy.