A diplomatic row has erupted over the United States visa status of multiple members of Iran’s 2026 World Cup delegation, with the tournament just days away and the team departing for Mexico on the same day to open its pre-competition camp.
Iran has spent the past three weeks training and playing closed-door matches in Antalya, Turkey, while diplomats worked to secure visas for entry to the United States, where the team will play all three of its group-stage games. Those visas were approved on June 5 for Iran’s players and some staff. However, Iranian state media and diplomats reported that same day that several support staff members had been excluded, including Iranian football federation chief Mehdi Taj.
A US state department official issued the same comment on Saturday, June 6, to multiple media outlets, claiming that “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.” The official added: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.
Earlier on Saturday, June 6, the Iranian embassy in Turkey responded forcefully to a tweet from US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who had celebrated his staff’s work in issuing the visas and claimed that “sport transcends borders.”
The Iranian embassy claimed in its statement, issued via quote tweet, that visas were denied to a “large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team.”
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy’s statement continued. “The US government in practice is depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions and without undue pressure and stress.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that those who had not received visas included three Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran officials: executive director Mehdi Kharati, secretary general Hedayat Mombini, and media director Mohsen Motamedkia. The agency said those staff members would travel with the team to Mexico while efforts to obtain visas continued.
The FFIRI said the behaviour of co-host the United States “contradicts international sports laws” and that it would take the matter up with FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
“The US government, continuing its hostile actions against the national team … made a non-sporting and completely political decision to refuse visas for key managerial and administrative members of the Iranian national football team,” it said in a statement reported by Iran’s state media.
“This issue will definitely be pursued by the Football Federation through FIFA. As the responsible body, [FIFA] has the duty to follow up and finalise the visas for the managerial, executive, technical, and support staff of the Iranian national team who are currently in camp and whom the national team urgently needs.”
Significant uncertainty remains over how the Iranian team will be able to move logistically through the tournament. Iran had originally planned to set up its base camp in Tucson, Arizona, but switched in May to training in Tijuana, Mexico, due to uncertainty over their immigration status.
Iran is scheduled to play all of its matches in the United States, with group-stage games in Los Angeles against New Zealand on June 15, against Belgium on June 21, and in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.
Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said on Saturday, June 6, that 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 contradicted what team spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi had told state television 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 each match at the venue where the game will be played.