Mexico has agreed to allow Iran to establish its training center in the country due to the immigration problems it faces when staying overnight in the United States during the 2026 World Cup, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced this Monday (25).
Iran, which will play its three first-round matches in the United States, announced on Saturday (23) that it had obtained approval from FIFA to concentrate on Mexico, thus avoiding the visa problems it faces.
“The United States does not want the Iranian team to stay there overnight,” explained the president in an interview. “Then they asked us, ‘Can they stay overnight in Mexico?’ We said yes, no problem.”
With its base initially scheduled for Tucson, Arizona, the Iranian team will now be based in Tijuana, on the border between Mexico and the United States, said the president of Iran’s football federation, Mehdi Taj, in a video released by the Fars news agency.
“Fortunately, thanks to the meetings we had with FIFA officials, our request to change country, from the United States to Mexico, due to problems encountered in obtaining visas, was accepted by FIFA,” said Taj.
Taj said the move will help avoid visa-related complications and that the delegation will be able to use Iran Air flights to travel directly to Mexico.
Iran’s participation in the World Cup has been in doubt for months because the tournament is being co-hosted by the United States, which, along with Israel, began bombing Iran on February 28, triggering a wider war in the Middle East.
Iran is in Group G and debuts against New Zealand in Los Angeles, on June 15th.
They will then face Belgium in the same city and end their participation in the group stage against Egypt in Seattle.
Taj said Tijuana was closer to the cities where Iran will play than the training site in Arizona.
“The distance for us in the two games we have in Los Angeles will be 55 minutes by flight. Which is much less compared to Tucson,” said the president of the federation.
The Iranian team is currently at a training center in Antalya, southern Turkey, and some players have gone to the US embassy in Ankara to apply for visas for the World Cup.
