{"id":333093,"date":"2026-05-26T17:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333093\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:19:09","slug":"mexicos-president-sees-no-issue-hosting-irans-world-cup-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333093\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico’s president sees ‘no issue’ hosting Iran’s World Cup team"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a> said on Monday that she has \u201cno issue\u201d with her country hosting Iran\u2019s World Cup team<\/a> after its training base was moved from the United States to Mexico<\/a> for the summer soccer competition.<\/p>\n

The team will still play its group stage matches in the U.S. but its base has been moved to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, a move that Iran\u2019s soccer federation announced recently and that was formally confirmed by FIFA, the sport\u2019s governing body, on Monday.<\/p>\n

Moving the training base comes against the backdrop of the war in Iran<\/a>, which the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum said at a news conference Monday that she was told by a FIFA representative the U.S. was reluctant to have the Iranian soccer team spend time outside the games on U.S. territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States doesn\u2019t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,\u201d Sheinbaum told reporters. She said a FIFA representative had then asked, \u201cCan they stay overnight in Mexico?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we said, \u2018Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Iran'sIran\u2019s national soccer team players stand onstage as they are greeted by a crowd during a pro-government gathering before their departure for training and friendly matches in Turkey ahead of the World Cup at Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s soccer team is slated to play matches in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and against Belgium six days later, before facing Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Before the war broke out, the team was originally planned to set up its base in Tucson, Arizona. But with tensions simmering, Iran\u2019s team moved its base to Tijuana in Mexico, Sheinbaum said, confirming an announcement by the Iranian federation over the weekend. The federation said the Iranians had received approval from FIFA, which made the move official on Monday when it released the lists of all 48 base camp sites.<\/p>\n

Teams use base camps to train before and after matches. This year\u2019s World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

The possibility of a move had simmered<\/a> for months in the uncertainty surrounding the war in the Middle East and security concerns. U.S. sanctions on Iran were likely to only make the team\u2019s stay in the U.S. more complex.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Monday that President Donald Trump<\/a> had made it clear the Iranian team was welcome to participate in the tournament.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s statement did not address where the team might stay, or Sheinbaum\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum said that her government was working with FIFA to hash out all the details before the competition.<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that she has \u201cno issue\u201d with her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24143,19378,2457,137936,74,76,75,5393],"class_list":["post-333093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-claudia-sheinbaum","tag-iran","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-hosting-iran-world-cup","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}