Iran move World Cup base from US to Mexico

TEHRAN: Iran are moving their World Cup training base to Mexico after football’s world governing body FIFA approved a request to transfer it from Tucson, Arizona, the head of Iran’s football federation said on Saturday.

The Iranian team will now be based in Tijuana on the border of Mexico and the United States during the tournament, federation president Mehdi Taj said in a video carried by the Fars news agency.

“Fortunately, thanks to the meetings we had with FIFA officials… our request to change countries from the United States to Mexico, due to problems encountered in obtaining visas, was accepted by FIFA,” Taj said.

“We will therefore be based in Tijuana, near the Pacific Ocean. It is a city that lies between Mexico and the US, but it is located in Mexico. We have actually completed the team building there.”

Taj said that the move would help to avoid complications related to visas and that the squad could use Iran Air flights to travel directly to Mexico.

Iran’s participation in the World Cup has been in question for months because it is being co-hosted by the United States, which along with Israel began bombing Iran on Feb 28, sparking a wider war in the Middle East.

Iran have been drawn in Group G and will play their first two matches in Los Angeles.

They open their campaign against New Zealand on June 15 and will then face Belgium on June 21 before rounding off their group games against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

Taj said that Tijuana was closer to the cities where Iran will play than the camp in Arizona would have been.

“The distance for us in the two games that we have in LA will be a 55-minute flight. Which is a lot less compared to Tucson,” the federation president said.

The Iran team is currently preparing in Antalya, southern Turkiye, and some of the squad went to the US embassy in Ankara on Thursday to submit visa applications for the World Cup.

– VISA UNCERTAINTY –

The Iranian football federation’s vice-president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi said on Tuesday that the federation was unsure if US visas would be granted to all of the team and accompanying officials.

“We’re not certain yet that all the players and staff will receive US visas,” he said, but added that Iran was “very confident” in FIFA’s protocols.

Sarah Hanna, the head of the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson where the Iran team were to have been based, told AFP on Saturday that she could not confirm the move to Mexico and referred all questions to World Cup organisers.

At a FIFA congress in Vancouver last month, president Gianni Infantino said that Iran would play their World Cup games in the US as scheduled.

“Let me start at the outset by confirming straight away, for those who maybe want to say something else or write something else, that of course Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026,” Infantino said then.

“And of course, Iran will play in the United States of America. The reason for that is simple, because we have to unite. We have to bring people together.”

The World Cup, hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada, kicks off on June 11.-AFP

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المصدر: New Straits Times