Iran World Cup team heads to Mexico as US visa row rages

Iranian players leave their Antalya hotel for their flight to Mexico (Handout)Iran's World Cup squad left Turkey for Mexico on Saturday, taking off under the shadow of a bitter diplomatic row between Tehran and Washington after the US refused to issue visas for some of the team's support staff.

>The dispute erupted just days before Thursday's kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

>The Iran team took off around 6:10 pm (1510 GMT) for Tijuana in northwest Mexico, where they will be based for the duration of the tournament, on what was expected to be a 20-hour flight, Iranian state TV reported.

>Iran are due to play their three group games on US soil, making this the first World Cup to see a host nation receive the team of a country it is at war with.

>Iran switched their base to Tijuana from their original base in Tucson, Arizona, in late May.

>The team spent nearly three weeks at a training camp in Antalya, using their time in Turkey to apply for visas to travel to Mexico, Canada and the United States.

>On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players received their US visas, Washington's envoy to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X late Friday.

>But Iran's embassy to Turkey issued a furious response after saying support staff had been denied visas -- 15 administrative and management staff are concerned, an Iranian diplomat and state TV said.

>"You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran's national football team to its highest level," the embassy wrote 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 Saturday the squad had been notified that under the conditions of their visas, 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 went against 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 press conference on the eve of the match at the venue where the game will be played.

>AFP has approached FIFA for comment.

>- 'Abuse this system' -

>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 pretenses."

>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 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.

>The Middle East war began after the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28. An April 8 ceasefire, which largely halted the fighting, has come under strain from recent exchanges of fire by the US and Iran.

>Iran, known as Team Melli, are in Group G and will play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, followed by a game against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

>Ahead of their departure, Iran defeated Mali 2-0 in a friendly in Antalya and also beat Gambia in an earlier warmup.

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