{"id":496388,"date":"2026-06-16T23:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/496388\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:46:08","slug":"iranian-soccer-players-us-visa-expired-after-one-game-iran-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/496388\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian soccer player’s US visa expired after one game, Iran says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iran<\/a> Football Federation (FFIRI) said on Tuesday that winger Mehdi Torabi’s visa had expired after a single visit to the United States<\/a> for the team’s World Cup<\/a> opener in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Torabi, an unused substitute in Monday’s 2-2 draw with New Zealand, is an ardent supporter of the Iranian government and has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a> (IRGC).<\/p>\n

The Iran national team is commuting from its tournament base in the Mexican border city of Tijuana for their three World Cup group-stage matches, the first two in Los Angeles and the third in Seattle.<\/p>\n

“While multiple-entry visas were issued for the team’s players to travel to the United States, Torabi’s visa was valid for only one entry,” an FFIRI spokesman said.<\/p>\n

“Following the team’s trip to Los Angeles for the match against New Zealand and the completion of that game, his visa has now expired.<\/p>\n

“The Iran Football Federation has taken action to obtain a new visa for Torabi so that he can continue to accompany the national team in its upcoming matches.”<\/p>\n

Iran’s next group match is against Belgium on Sunday, and Torabi would need a new visa by Saturday at the latest if he is to join the squad on their trip to California.<\/p>\n

During the 2019 anti-government protests, Torabi wore a T-shirt on the pitch during a club match reading: “The only way to save the country is to obey the leadership.”<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was also a regular presence at nightly pro-government rallies in Tehran’s Valiasr Square that took place after US and Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic triggered a regional conflict in late February.<\/p>\n

The US government classifies the IRGC as a “terrorist entity,” and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it would not allow anyone with links to the IRGC to enter the country with the players.<\/p>\n

Iran’s World Cup team supervisor Mahdi Mohammad Nabi was among 15 FFIRI officials who were denied visas to travel to the US for the World Cup games.<\/p>\n

This had been set to be the first \u200cWorld Cup \u2060in which a host nation received a country it was at war with until a peace deal was announced barely 24 hours before Monday’s match.<\/p>\n

Coach Amir Ghalenoei said the travel chaos stemming from tensions between Iran and the US had “oppressed” his players and affected their performance against New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iran Football Federation (FFIRI) said on Tuesday that winger Mehdi Torabi’s visa had expired after a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19712,8316,4118,42,87,43,40,38,41,39,1032],"class_list":["post-496388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}