{"id":717896,"date":"2026-06-06T00:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717896\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T00:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:13:10","slug":"irans-soccer-players-issued-visas-to-play-world-cup-matches-in-u-s-official-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717896\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s soccer players issued visas to play World Cup matches in U.S., official says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

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Iran’s World Cup soccer 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 \u200bcountries.<\/p>\n

Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said late on Thursday the squad \u200bhad still not received their U.S. visas but these were granted overnight, the White House official said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Iran’s World Cup federation could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The U.S. had \u200bnot yet issued visas to some members of the Iran team’s technical and administrative staff, the \u2060semi-official Fars news agency reported on \u2060Friday.<\/p>\n

“Visas for some members of the national team’s technical and \u200cexecutive staff have not yet been issued, and the U.S. embassy has so far refused to issue them,” it said, without citing a source.<\/p>\n

War tensions loom<\/p>\n

The Iran war has turned the World Cup \u2014 the biggest global sporting event \u2014 into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing to use the tournament for political posturing.<\/p>\n

WATCH | FIFA confirms Iran’s participation:\"\"<\/p>\n

FIFA says Iran will play at World Cup after officials denied entry to Canada | Hanomansing Tonight<\/p>\n

Speaking to representatives at a pre-World Cup gathering in Vancouver, FIFA President Gianni Infantino says Iran will play at this summer’s tournament. The assertion comes amid safety concerns and after Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj \u2014 who has ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard \u2014 was granted documents to travel to Canada but was ultimately turned around at the border.<\/p>\n

Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, because of the visa issues \u200cand a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n

The team is scheduled to land in Tijuana early Sunday.<\/p>\n

Iran is due to play their first Group G match June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where it will also face Belgium before \u200btaking on Egypt in Seattle.<\/p>\n

The U.S. had never formally said it did not want the Iran team to stay on its territory, Pasandideh said.<\/p>\n

However, U.S. Secretary of \u2060State Marco Rubio told lawmakers Tuesday that the U.S. would not allow Iran to include in its World Cup delegation \u2060individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.<\/p>\n

Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s soccer \u2060federation, \u2060was denied entry for the tournament draw in \u200bWashington in December. He is a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n

\"IranianIran’s desire to compete in the World Cup underscored its \u200befforts to reach a resolution in the war with Washington, said Iranian Ambassador to Mexico Abolfazl Pasandideh. (Seila Montes\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Iran’s desire to compete in the World Cup underscored its \u200befforts to reach a resolution in \u2060the war with Washington, Pasandideh said.<\/p>\n

“Iran’s participation in the World Cup \u2014 even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy \u2014 shows that Iran seeks peace,” Pasandideh said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-717896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}