Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she will allow Iran to base its national team in Mexico during the World Cup, after the United States told Fifa it did not want the Iranian squad to stay overnight on U.S. soil.
Sheinbaum delivered the decision in plain terms: "We have no reason to deny them the possibility of staying in Mexico," she said, adding that "the United States does not want the Iranian team to stay overnight, but they are going to play three matches there."
The size of the change is concrete. Iran were originally given Tucson, Arizona as their World Cup base; Fifa later confirmed the team’s training centre will instead be at Centro Xoloitzcuintle in Tijuana, Mexico. Iran’s three group matches are all scheduled in the United States — New Zealand on 15 June and Belgium on 21 June in Los Angeles, and Egypt on 26 June in Seattle — during the tournament that runs 11 June-19 July.
Iran’s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali said Fifa had assured Tehran that the squad would be granted the necessary U.S. visas. "The Fifa president promised us that all our players would receive visas. There is no reason why our players should not receive visas," Donyamali said, reflecting Tehran’s central concern about travel and entry ahead of the matches.
Mehdi Taj, the head of Iran’s football federation, said on Saturday the team’s base would be moved from Arizona to Tijuana to avoid what he called visa-related complications and that the squad would be able to travel directly to Mexico aboard Iran Air flights. Iran are currently preparing for the World Cup at a training camp in Turkey while those arrangements are finalised.
Fifa first approached Mexico after the United States indicated it did not want Iran’s squad to stay in the country throughout the tournament, according to officials briefed on the discussions. Mexico agreed. "So they asked us: 'Can they stay overnight in Mexico?' And we said: 'Yes, no problem.' We have no problem," Sheinbaum said.
Context matters here: this World Cup is being co-hosted by three countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico — and Iran’s participation was often in doubt amid the ongoing war in the Middle East and related security concerns. Iran’s football federation presented Fifa with a list of 10 conditions for participation, including specific visa requests for people who completed military service with the IRGC, and Iranian officials travelled to the U.S. embassy in Ankara to submit visa applications.
The lead-up has already been bumpy. Earlier in tournament planning Iran were assigned Tucson; before April’s Fifa annual congress in Vancouver, Mehdi Taj was turned away at the Canadian border when his visa was cancelled by Canadian authorities who cited alleged links to the IRGC. On 28 February, U.S. and Israeli strikes were launched on Iran and in early April a tenuous ceasefire was agreed amid protracted peace talks — details that have fed into security assessments and travel decisions for the competition.
The tension is blunt and immediate: Mexico’s willingness to host the squad removes one obstacle, but it does not resolve the outstanding question of entry for every member of Iran’s delegation. U.S. officials have signalled they will welcome players but warned individuals with links to the IRGC could face entry restrictions, and Iranian officials insist all players will receive visas.
Accepting Tijuana as a base keeps Iran in the region and shortens flights to their U.S. match cities, but it also shifts the next set of decisions back to immigration desks and the diplomatic commitments Fifa says it has secured. The single unanswered question now is which players, if any, will be denied U.S. entry when Iran flies north from Tijuana to play in Los Angeles and Seattle — a determination that will decide whether Iran’s team arrives whole for those three matches.
