Iran’s national team arrived in Tijuana on Sunday ahead of three World Cup matches in the US amid a row over visas.
The squad touched down shortly after 5am local time (4pm UAE) in the Mexican city, across the border from San Diego, after an overnight flight from Turkey, where they had been training for the past three weeks.
The Iranian 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 staff were not given visas, including “key managerial and administrative members”, according to Iran’s football federation.
The IFF accused the US of “vindictive behaviour”, saying that 14 officials had been refused visas. The list includes the federation's vice president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi and secretary-general Hedayat Mombeini. It was not clear whether federation president Mehdi Taj had been issued a visa.
Tensions have been high between the United States and Iran since war broke out in February.
Iran arrive in Mexico – in pictures
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Team Iran arrives at Tijuana International Airport ahead of the World Cup. Reuters -
Iran's Ehsan Hajsafi gets emotional as he arrives ahead of the World Cup. Reuters -
Team Iran disembark at Tijuana International Airport ahead of the World Cup. Reuters -
Football fans cheer as Iran's players leave the Tijuana International Airport on a bus. AFP -
Football fans cheer as Iran's players leave the Tijuana International Airport on a bus. AFP -
Iran's Ehsan Hajsafi, left, arrives ahead of the World Cup. Reuters -
Iran's Alireza Jahanbakhsh speaks to the media. Reuters -
National Guard officers guard the Tijuana International Airport. AFP
The players received visas from the Mexican embassy in Antalya, where their pre-tournament training camp was based. In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said he was proud of the US embassy in Ankara, which processed the visas.
“Sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world,” he wrote.
But, according to the IFF, denying support staff visas has “effectively denied the Iranian national team the opportunity for a level playing field and a competition free from discrimination”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the Iranian travelling party would be watched closely for people with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“We have no problem with the athletes, as we stated earlier, or their support staff,” Rubio said. “But what we're not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature.
“So we were going to watch that very closely, and we'll continue to watch that very closely.”
Iran play World Cup games against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21 in Inglewood near Los Angeles. The team finishes the group stage five days later in Seattle against Egypt.
The US and Iran could face each other on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, if the two teams both finish second in their respective groups.
Iraq star Hussein held for seven hours
Iraq's World Cup striker, Aymen Hussein, was held and questioned for nearly seven hours at Chicago's O'Hare airport after arriving with the squad early on Saturday, an Iraqi official said.
Hussein was finally allowed in, but the team's photographer was barred from entering the US, said the official who works for the Iraqi Olympic Committee, but has close contacts with the team.
There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi Football Association or from Hussein, a talismanic figure who scored the goal that secured the team's qualification for the finals.
Fans came out in the early hours of the morning to greet the Iraq squad at the airport, holding flags and asking players to pose for pictures less than a week before the start of the tournament, video on social media showed.
Hussein's phone was inspected after he arrived, the Iraqi official said. “National team photographer Talal Salah was held for more than 10 hours, underwent similar phone checks, and was ultimately denied entry into the United States,” the official added.
Iraq are returning to the World Cup for the first time since making their debut 40 years ago. They face France, Senegal and Norway in Group I.
