Iranian football team expected in Mexico

The Iranian football team is expected on Sunday in Mexico, where its base camp for the World Cup is located, despite the refusal by the United States, where it must play its first matches, to issue visas to certain members of its management.

Iranian players flew to Mexico on Saturday after a 15-day training camp in Antalya, Turkey, Iranian state television announced, a few days before the June 11 kickoff of the competition co-organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Players must arrive in Tijuana, where they will establish their base camp for the duration of the competition.

In this city located on the border with the United States, security was reinforced before the team's arrival, an AFP journalist noted on Saturday. National Guard soldiers are stationed, heavily armed, in front of the stadium where Team Melli will train, as well as in front of the hotel where they will stay.

If the American administration claimed to have issued the necessary visas to the Iranian players and their support staff, the Iranian ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, declared that "15 members of the administrative and management team" had been refused. According to Iranian media in Tehran, this includes the president of the Iranian federation Mehdi Taj.

The Iranian embassy in Turkey denounced “intentional discriminatory treatment”.

- Without a manager or press officer? -

"Mr. Trump should answer this question: If the team manager and press secretary are not present, who is supposed to attend the pre-match coordination meeting?" asked Amir Mahdi Alavi, spokesperson for the team, in a television interview. Iranian Football Federation, specifying that a letter had been sent to FIFA.

The Iranian selection will also have to enter and exit the United States on the same day of its matches, declared Saturday in Tijuana the Iranian ambassador to Mexico, who spoke to the press before the team's arrival later in the day.

“We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,” he said according to an official Spanish translation from Farsi.

The spokesperson for the federation had previously indicated that the players, who received multiple entry visas, had to arrive in the United States one day before the first match, and two days before for the following matches.

Iran was one of the first countries to qualify for the World Cup but its participation was called into question after the launch of Israeli-American strikes on the country on February 28.

The hostilities were interrupted by a ceasefire on April 8, which seemed to be rapidly disintegrating after weeks of threats and a resumption, in recent days, of both American and foreign strikes.