Iran is due to play their first Group G match on 15 June against New Zealand in Los Angeles [GETTY]
Iran’s World Cup football players have been granted visas to enter the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Friday, just 10 days before their first match in Los Angeles amid a conflict between the two countries.
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed in a message on X on Friday.
“Proud of our outstanding team at the US Embassy in Ankara for their work processing visas for Iran’s national football team on their road to the @FIFAWorldCup in the United States,” he said, commenting on a news report that Iran’s World Cup players have been granted the visas to enter the United States.
“Sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world,” the ambassador said.
This comes after Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said late on Thursday that the squad had not yet received their US visas, but a White House official said they were granted overnight.
Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, due to visa issues and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.
They are scheduled to land in Tijuana early Sunday morning.
Iran is due to play their first Group G match on 15 June against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where they will also face Belgium before taking on Egypt in Seattle.
The Iran war has turned the World Cup, the biggest global sporting event, into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing to use the tournament for political posturing.
It is the first World Cup since its inception in 1930 in which a host nation is set to receive a country with which it is at war.
The US has never formally said it did not want the Iranian team to stay on its territory, Ambassador Pasandideh said.
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US would not allow Iran to include in its World Cup delegation individuals linked to the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.
That could apply to several players in the Iran squad who have completed mandatory military service.
