The directors of the Iranian Football Federation canceled this Wednesday (29) their participation in the FIFA (International Football Federation) Congress in Vancouver, Canada, the last before the start of the World Cup, citing an “insult” given by an immigration police officer at Toronto airport.
The alleged incident is the latest development to cloud the Iranian team’s path towards the World Cup, which will be played from June 11 to July 19, following the war in the Middle East that has mainly pitted Iran against the United States and Israel since the end of February. The competition will have matches in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The president and secretary general of the Iranian Federation traveled to the FIFA Congress in Canada with “official visas”, according to a statement from the organization published by the Asian nation’s news agencies.
They decided “to return to Turkey on the first available flight due to the inappropriate behavior of immigration agents at the airport and the insult to one of the most honorable bodies of the Iranian Armed Forces”, says the note, which does not provide further details.
In 2024, Canada classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, a designation that prohibits its members from entering its territory. It was created to protect the political system after Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, and exerts influence in the country’s military, political and economic areas.
The president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, is a former member of the Guard. In December, he did not obtain a visa from the United States to be present at the draw for the 2026 World Cup, which was held in Washington with the presence of North American President Donald Trump.
“Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel have no place in Canada,” the Canadian Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Office said on Wednesday, but stressed it could not comment on specific cases due to privacy concerns.
Doubt in the World Cup
The statement from the Iranian Football Federation also indicates that, after the alleged incident at Toronto airport, it was in contact with FIFA officials, who reportedly regretted what happened.
Football’s governing body did not publicly comment on the Iranian delegation’s allegations. FIFA did not respond to a query from the report on the topic.
Vancouver will host the FIFA Congress on Thursday (30), which focuses on the final preparations for holding the World Cup in North America.
After the start of the war in the Middle East, Iran’s presence in the World Cup has been questioned, especially because its team will play the three group stage games in North American territory.
The United States has said it does not intend to exclude Iranian players from the tournament, its Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, recently said. He, however, expressed his reservations about the people willing to accompany the team, “some of them with links to the Revolutionary Guards”.
FIFA takes for granted the presence of the Iranian team in the World Cup, the first to be played in three countries and with 48 teams.
“Iran will come, without a doubt,” said the organization’s president, Gianni Infantino, during a forum organized by the CNBC television channel in Washington in April. “We hope that at this point [o início da Copa] the situation is a peaceful situation, which would really help.”
The Iranian team has two Group G matches scheduled for Los Angeles, on June 15th and 21st. Next, the table predicts a duel with Egypt, in Seattle, on the 26th. According to the original schedule, the team will have its training and concentration base in Tucson, Arizona.
