Iran have been granted permission by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to travel to the United States a day earlier for their final World Cup group game on Friday.
The change in immigration policy follows continued complaints by members of the Iran World Cup party that travel restrictions were impacting their ability to compete at the tournament.
The squad will now be able to fly from their base in Tijuana, Mexico on Wednesday, two days prior to their match against Egypt in Seattle to aid their preparations. For previous games against New Zealand (2-2) and Belgium (0-0) in Los Angeles, they were only permitted to travel the day before the game.
“For the Iranian team’s third match in Seattle on June 26, the team has been permitted to come into the U.S. two days before the match. The Iran team will still be required to leave the day the match ends. The overall security measures and protocol are the same. We remain committed to providing the safest tournament possible for players, staff, and fans alike,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force outlined to The Associated Press, that they had always planned to monitor the team’s movements during the first two games, and “if they went smoothy” they would allow Iran an “extra day in light of the longer travel time.”
We traveled to Tijuana to go behind the scenes at Iran’s training camp
Laurie Whitwell
Although Iran have been given extra time before the game, they have been told that they will still have to fly back from Seattle — which is 1,000 miles and a two to three hour flight away from their training base in Mexico — immediately after the end of the game, which kicks off at 8pm local time.
“They have said we have to leave immediately,” Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei said through an interpreter following his side’s opening fixture against New Zealand. “We are really troubled by that. We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest. It seems very strange. It seems others are doing the planning for us.”
He continued: “Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup.”
The Iran soccer federation (FFIRI) said last week it intended to lodge an official complaint with FIFA regarding its World Cup travel arrangements
Iran are second in Group G on two points after two games and are bidding to reach the knock-out phase of the World Cup for the first time.
The Athletic has also been advised by a source with close ties to the Iran national team that members of the travelling party who were initially denied visas for the U.S. are still barred from entering the country. Prior to the team leaving their pre-World Cup base in Turkey, 13 members of support staff were not granted permission to enter the U.S. and have remained in Mexico when matches have taken place.
When the squad flew from Turkey to Mexico they wore #168 pin badges on their lapels to honour the number of children killed at an elementary school on the first day of the U.S.-Iran conflict — February 28, 2026 — according to the Iranian foreign ministry. In a message left on a white board at the Sofi Stadium after the game with Belgium, #168 and #Minab was written in red pen. At a training session on Tuesday flags with the hashtag were put up on the training pitches, which was open to media for the first 15 minutes.
Later on Tuesday, the team released a video — enhanced by AI — depicting the team walking onto the pitch holding the hands of the children who had been killed.
FIFA have been asked by The Athletic as to whether they will be looking into the incidents and whether they contravene measures prohibiting political messaging. The White House have been approached for comment on the release of the video.