Iran’s national soccer team cleared US visas and flew out of Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday for Tijuana, Mexico, ahead of three 2026 World Cup group matches on American soil. But at least 14 federation officials were still without US entry clearance when the players boarded, including the secretary-general and vice president of the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI), Iranian state television reported. The federation called the denials “completely political” and said it would take the matter to FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
Whether Mehdi Taj, the federation’s president and a former commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, had been issued a visa remained unclear by the time the squad departed. Iran’s first match is June 15.
The Team Boards, the Officials Wait
Players kissed the Quran at Antalya airport before boarding, their travel documents finally processed after weeks of back-and-forth with Washington. The team is scheduled to land in Tijuana on Sunday, June 7, where it will train under coach Amir Ghalenoei ahead of the drive across the California border for group-stage fixtures.
Clearance came on the player side after sustained pressure. One US official told the Associated Press that all players had been approved for visas. A second said the approvals covered players, coaches, trainers, and some support staff. A third official, also speaking anonymously, said some applicants affiliated with the team had been rejected for requesting visas “under false pretenses,” without elaborating. None was authorized to discuss the applications publicly.
The squad arrived in Antalya already reshaped by the conflict. Sardar Azmoun, the 31-year-old forward known for time at Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma and nicknamed the “Iranian Messi,” was cut in March after posting a photo alongside the Emir of Dubai, a known US ally, angering Iranian authorities. He deleted it quickly, but the damage was done. Seventeen of the 26 players who made the final roster are home-based, their clubs not having played since February when hostilities began. Iran beat Gambia 3-1 on May 29 and Mali 2-0 on Thursday in its final warm-up matches.
The FFIRI said the officials without US clearance would travel to Tijuana with the squad while attempts to secure American entry visas continued. Mexico’s embassy in Ankara had issued travel authorizations for the full delegation without incident; the complication sits entirely on the US side of the border.
The Names Behind the Numbers
Iranian state television and the semiofficial news agency Tasnim named four of the visa-blocked officials by role:
- Hedayat Mombeini, secretary-general of the Iranian Football Federation
- Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, vice president of the federation
- Mehdi Kharati, executive director
- Mohsen Motamedkia, media director
Those four positions form the federation’s command structure above the coaching staff. The secretary-general handles day-to-day administration, the executive director manages on-the-ground operations, and the media director runs all communications with the press corps traveling to Los Angeles and Seattle. Without US clearance, every logistics decision and press conference during the American legs of the tournament would need to flow through Mexico.
The Iranian Embassy in Ankara chose a pointed public channel for its response. After US Ambassador Tom Barrack posted on social media congratulating his embassy staff for processing the Iranian team’s visas, the embassy replied: “You cannot whitewash conduct that violates FIFA regulations and breaches the United States’ host obligations merely by praising yourselves,” per the Associated Press. The FFIRI’s statement, reported by Iranian state media, said the US decision had “effectively denied the Iranian national team the opportunity for a level playing field and a competition free from discrimination.” Both statements said the case would be pursued through FIFA.
The IRGC Standard
Rubio’s Policy
The visa policy had been spelled out publicly for weeks before the team departed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a House of Representatives committee in May that the US would allow Iran’s national team to compete at the World Cup but would not extend that welcome to anyone with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military branch that the United States designates as a foreign terrorist organization.
We’re not going to allow 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.
Rubio told the committee. He stressed that players, coaches, and genuine support personnel were welcome; the filter targeted non-sporting staff with security ties.
Taj at the Intersection
Mehdi Taj, 66, had already absorbed the consequences of that policy twice before a ball was kicked. A former high-ranking IRGC commander, he holds the FFIRI presidency, and that history had cost him entry to two North American countries in the months before the tournament. In late April, he arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport for the FIFA Congress in Vancouver and was turned back after questioning by Canadian officials; Canada designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2024 and stated that individuals linked to it are inadmissible regardless of documentation. He had also been refused a US visa for the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in December.
Taj was not private about his terms. In May, he told state broadcaster IRIB: “Americans, if they guarantee not to insult our military institutions and the IRGC, we’ll go.” On the US side, special envoy Paolo Zampolli confirmed to the Financial Times in April that he had floated the idea of replacing Iran with Italy, a four-time World Cup champion that had missed qualification, in conversations with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and President Trump. Italy’s sports minister called the suggestion “not possible and not appropriate.” FIFA refused. Iran’s national team had pushed back on Trump’s March statement that it was not “appropriate” for them to attend, saying “no one can exclude” it from the World Cup, and the FFIRI finalized its squad in May despite the Iranian sports minister having declared in March that participation “would not be possible.”
Whether Taj boarded the June 6 flight to Mexico, or whether he attempted to obtain a US entry visa at all, was not confirmed by the time the squad left Antalya.
Playing in Los Angeles, Staging from Tijuana
Iran originally planned to base its World Cup preparations in Tucson, Arizona, which would have placed the squad on US soil for the bulk of the group stage. That arrangement collapsed as visa uncertainty deepened and Tehran’s political instinct shifted toward minimizing time on American territory. Tijuana was chosen for its proximity to Los Angeles while sitting outside US jurisdiction.
Both Los Angeles fixtures are in Inglewood; the 2026 World Cup’s arrival in Los Angeles has drawn community soccer programs across Southern California since spring. Iran’s full Group G schedule:
| Date | Match | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| June 15 | Iran vs. New Zealand | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA |
| June 21 | Belgium vs. Iran | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA |
| June 26 | Egypt vs. Iran | Lumen Field, Seattle, WA |
Infantino confirmed in May that all three games would proceed in the US as originally scheduled, despite Iran’s request to move them to Mexican or Canadian venues. The US men’s national team (USMNT) is in Group D with Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey. If both squads finish second in their respective groups, they would meet in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas.
FIFA in the Middle
FIFA already turned down one Iranian request during this build-up. When the visa situation first became acute, the FFIRI asked for its group matches to be relocated. FIFA refused, keeping all three games on American soil. The federation is now filing a second complaint, this one directly targeting the administrative staff denials.
“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,” the FFIRI said in a statement quoted by Iranian state media. FIFA had not responded by Saturday.
The Egypt-Iran match in Seattle on June 26 has generated its own subsidiary dispute. Seattle’s organizing committee branded the game a “Pride Match” to coincide with Pride events in the city. The FFIRI president said both Iran and Egypt had formal “objections” to the designation. Egypt’s Football Association sent a letter to FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström rejecting “in absolute terms” any LGBTQ+ connections to the match. Seattle’s committee said the designation had been planned well in advance and was not subject to change.
The 2026 tournament is the first World Cup since 1930 in which a host nation is set to play a team from a country it has been at war with. FIFA has no written rule for that category of conflict.
What 1998 Left Behind
The Lyon Match
Every time Iran and the United States share a World Cup, the match becomes something other than a game. The reference point is June 21, 1998, in Lyon, France, described by participants as “the most politically charged game in World Cup history.” Iran had not qualified since 1978. The backdrop was nearly two decades of severed diplomatic relations, a hostage crisis, and mutual sanctions.
Before kickoff in Lyon, Iran’s players presented white roses to their American counterparts and both squads posed for a joint photograph. The ceremony had been negotiated with FIFA; Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had reportedly issued express orders that Iranian players must not walk toward the Americans, so the Americans crossed the midfield line instead. Iran won 2-1, goals from Hamid Estili and Mehdi Mahdavikia, to eliminate the US from the tournament. Tehran celebrated through the night.
The 2026 Shadow
In Qatar in 2022, the US reversed the result 1-0 to send Iran home in the group stage. The 2026 edition opens with a host nation that launched military strikes on the visiting team’s country in February, paused by an April 8 ceasefire that has been fraying by multiple accounts since. Khamenei, who reportedly issued the express orders about the 1998 handshake ceremony, was killed in the February strikes.
Iran has reached four consecutive World Cups without advancing past the group stage. Captain Mehdi Taremi carries 59 international goals in 103 appearances, and on paper Group G alongside Belgium, Egypt, and New Zealand is a navigable draw. Getting the federation’s administrative layer into US stadiums on time is the separate, unresolved piece.
Iran opens Group G against New Zealand on June 15. The federation’s officials may still be working their US visa applications from a hotel across the California border when the kickoff whistle blows.
