Sawt Falasteen - Iran's World Cup team arrives in Mexico as US visa row rages

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.

After departing from their training camp in Turkey a day earlier, the Iran team landed early Sunday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, AFP witnessed.

The team will be based in the city throughout the tournament, despite playing their entire group stage in the United States.

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.

Iran's 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 said 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 Saturday on X, 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 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.

"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 news conference on the eve of the match at the venue where the game will be played.

- '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 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.

The visa row has impacted the Iraqi team as well.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said Saturday that Iraq's national team had landed in Chicago on Friday, and that two members were subjected to additional screening.

"Following inspection, one traveler was admitted to the United States. The second traveler, a photographer and NOT a player on the team, was determined to be inadmissible and was denied entry," CBP said in a statement.

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.

Iran 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.

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST