Whether the team would even be allowed into the country remained unknown as FIFA President Gianni Infantino appeared unable to secure any guarantees from Trump about the Iranian team\u2019s visa situation.<\/p>\n
Out of a rightful abundance of caution, manager Amir Ghalenoei\u2019s side switched the team\u2019s base camp from Arizona, US, to Tijuana, Mexico, at the last minute. The US doubled down on Tuesday and said the team had to depart within hours<\/a> of the full-time whistle being blown. They had arrived just one day prior to kickoff.<\/p>\n As a hurried memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran began to materialise on Wednesday night, questions arose on its ramifications for Team Melli.<\/p>\n While neither side has released a physical copy of the memorandum of understanding, nor are World Cup-specific arrangements expected to be written in, experts hope that the agreement translates to more amicable treatment for the Iranian football team in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a peace deal, things can change,\u201d Mortazavi said in an interview with Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see President Trump\u2019s rhetoric on Iran has dramatically changed over the past few days, and he\u2019s suddenly talking about better relationships with Iran from a political and economic standpoint, and that can certainly extend to sports,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n The shift from threats to diplomacy sprouted last week when Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that \u201cour relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had\u201d. \u201cHopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n Mortazavi said that despite the World Cup\u2019s stance on steering clear from politics, the US\u2019s treatment of Iran\u2019s team was a testament to how politics can impact the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect a US peace deal to open the door for better relations and hopefully have a positive impact on the situation of the team and remove some of the hurdles if the US can extend some goodwill gestures to the team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A slight thawing of relations ahead of the peace deal announcement came as the US on Tuesday quickly reissued a multiple-entry visa<\/a> for Iran winger Mehdi Torabi after his visa expired following the game with New Zealand.<\/p>\n However, political scholar Niki Akhavan cautioned that Trump might renege on the deal due to the immense pressure he faces from Republican anti-Iran hardliners, pro-Israel groups and Democrats for giving Iran \u201ctoo much\u201d in the peace deal.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, in the best-case scenario, issuing a multiple-entry visa for Torabi may be a good indication of some kind of flexibility on the US\u2019s part to actually adhere to its responsibilities as a host nation,\u201d Akhavan told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cThe comments Trump has made today on Iran are friendly comments, we might see better treatment of the Iran team, which has been unfairly treated the most. It\u2019s a sign of them softening their unreasonable stance towards Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n Akhavan\u2019s caution stood true as tensions at the World Cup reignited after the solitary goodwill gesture of Torabi\u2019s visa renewal.<\/p>\n Iran announced on Thursday that it would lodge a complaint with FIFA<\/a> after its football federation claimed its request to enter the US two days before their match against Belgium on Sunday was declined.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite having submitted its preparation schedule for the tournament well in advance, Iran\u2019s national football team has once again encountered restrictions imposed by the organisers, affecting the implementation of its technical staff\u2019s plans,\u201d a spokesperson for the federation said.<\/p>\n Part of the host nation\u2019s responsibilities include each team\u2019s safety, and, Akhavan argues that the US\u2019s decisions regarding Iran\u2019s logistics at the World Cup have been discriminatory and have deliberately attempted to hurt the team.<\/p>\n The logistical barriers were compounded when Iran\u2019s World Cup ticket allotment for fans was withdrawn just before the tournament began. Additionally, several members of the squad\u2019s technical staff were denied entry to the US, even though all football players were allowed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re actively disadvantaging a team; the whole idea is that everybody is level on the playing field, and the US\u2019s actions thus far have been counter to that,\u201d Akhavan said.<\/p>\n \u201cI can only hope that one impact of this agreement is that they [the US] will adhere to their responsibilities [as host nation] and we\u2019ll see some changes.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause this is unfair to these young men; this is their dream and they\u2019re representing their people.\u201d<\/p>\n Akhavan also emphasised that FIFA could have pushed the US to fulfil its responsibilities as a host nation and transcend the war and politics.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, now that there is an agreement, [Infantino] can use that as motivation to make peace part of the agenda of the World Cup. There\u2019s a lot of empty gestures towards peace by Infantino and FIFA with the armbands and the FIFA peace prize,\u201d Akhavan said, referring to Trump being the recipient of FIFA\u2019s inaugural accolade<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s see if they can actually put some of that into material reality in terms of the Iranian team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iranian football team began their World Cup campaign under the shadow of a war with the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,47,43,2224,40,38,41,39,1156,101640],"class_list":["post-502463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502463","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=502463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Soccer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/reuters_6a358246-1781891654.jpg\")
The Iran team bus arrives at the hotel with a police escort on June 14, 2026 [Mike Blake\/Reuters]<\/p>\n![\"Soccer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/reuters_6a35832c-1781891884.jpg\")
Iran\u2019s Seyed Hossein Hosseini, Ehsan Hajsafi and teammates outside the US embassy for visa procedures ahead of the World Cup, in Ankara, Turkiye, on May 21, 2026. [Dilara Senkaya\/Reuters]<\/p>\n