Iran Condemns US Visa Denials For World Cup Officials

Iran on Saturday slammed World Cup co-host the United States over what it called “discriminatory treatment” in not granting visas for some members of the Iranian delegation to the tournament.

The Iranian embassy in Turkey said in a post on X, while referring to an earlier announcement by US envoy Tom Barrack that visas had been granted to players, described the denial of visas to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team as the highest level of discriminatory treatment.

On Friday, Barrack praised the US embassy in Ankara over its “work processing visas for Iran’s national football team” after the head of the Iran Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, said on the same day that the Iranian delegation had submitted passports for visas.

Iran’s ability to participate in the World Cup was further called into question after Taj was refused entry to Canada for the FIFA Congress in Vancouver last month because of his links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This year’s World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. All three of Iran’s group matches are in the US.

Of the three host countries, Mexico is the only one that does not classify the IRGC as a terrorist entity, whereas the US and Canada have both made it clear they will not admit people with links to the elite military force.

The Iranians relocated their World Cup base, which was initially planned to be in Tucson, Arizona, to the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana. The players are scheduled to land in Tijuana early Sunday morning.

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.