The United States (U.S) government has officially approved visas for Iran football team just ten days before the team’s opening match.
The decision clears a cloud of bureaucratic and political uncertainty that threatened to derail Iran’s participation in the historic tournament.
White House officials and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey confirmed that the visas were processed and granted overnight, allowing the Iranian football team to legally enter the U.S. for their Group G fixtures.
The breakthrough comes at the absolute eleventh hour for the Iranian delegation. Due to intense regional tensions and strict security vetting protocols, the team’s travel documentation was heavily delayed.
Fearing they would not be cleared in time to acclimatize to North American conditions, the Iranian Football Federation recently made the executive decision to relocate their pre-tournament training camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico.
Now, with the U.S visa approval finalized, the Iranian football team can travel across the border for their matches without the threat of forfeit.
US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack confirmed the visas in a message on X on Friday. “Proud of our outstanding team at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara for their work processing visas for Iran’s national football team on their road to the @FIFAWorldCup in the United States,” he said, commenting on a news report that Iran’s World Cup players have been granted the visas to enter the United States.
However, Iran has accused the U.S of denying visas to “integral” members of its national football team’s backroom staff, hours after Washington confirmed Iranian players had been given permission to travel to the upcoming World Cup.
This also comes after Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said late on Thursday that the squad had still not received their U.S visas.
Also, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Friday that the U.S had not yet issued visas to some members of the Iran team’s technical and administrative staff,
“Visas for some members of the national team’s technical and executive staff have not yet been issued, and the US embassy has so far refused to issue them,” Fars said, without citing a source.
The U.S-Israel war on Iran has turned the World Cup – the biggest global sporting event – into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing to use the tournament for political posturing.
It is the first World Cup, since its inception in 1930, in which a host nation is set to receive a country with which it is at war.
Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico due to the visa issues and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.
They are scheduled to land in Tijuana early on Sunday.
Iran is due to play their first Group G match on June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where they will also face Belgium before taking on Egypt in Seattle.
The U.S has never formally said it does not want the Iranian team to stay on its territory, Ambassador Pasandideh said.
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S would not allow Iran to include in its World Cup delegation individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s football federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December. He is a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards.
