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Iran’s Ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh (second from left), attended a press conference ahead of the national football team’s arrival for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

The Iran national football team departed from Turkey for Mexico on Saturday, travelling under the shadow of an escalating diplomatic dispute between Tehran and Washington after the United States refused to issue visas to part of the team’s support staff.

The controversy erupted just days before the start of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Iran’s squad left at around 6:10 p.m. local time, heading to Tijuana in northwestern Mexico, where they will be based throughout the tournament.

According to Iranian state television, the flight was expected to take approximately 20 hours.

Iran is scheduled to play all three of its group matches in the United States, marking the first time in World Cup history that a host nation will receive a team from a country it is currently in conflict with.

At the end of May, Iran moved its base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana.

The team spent nearly three weeks in a training camp in Antalya, using the period in Turkey to apply for travel visas to Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

On the eve of their departure to Mexico, the players were granted U.S. visas, according to Tom Barrack, Washington’s envoy to Turkey, who confirmed the news on Friday evening on X.

However, the Iranian embassy in Turkey issued a strong response, stating that support staff had been denied visas. Fifteen administrative and management personnel were affected, according to an Iranian diplomat and state television.

“You have now taken the deliberate and discriminatory treatment of Iran’s national football team to the highest level,” the embassy wrote on X on Saturday.

The embassy called on FIFA, the world governing body of football, to hold the United States accountable for violating its regulations.

Adding to the tension, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said on Saturday that the team had been informed that under the terms of their visas, they must enter and leave U.S. territory on the same day as their matches.

“We can enter in the morning and must leave the same day,” Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters.

This contradicted earlier remarks made by team spokesperson Amir Mahdi Alavi to state television.

“The visas issued for the national team are multiple-entry visas, and the team will arrive at the match venue one day before the first game and, for subsequent matches, two days before each game,” Alavi said.

FIFA regulations for the World Cup stipulate that team coaches must hold a press conference the night before their match at the competition venue.

Iranian Football Federation President Mehdi Taj was reportedly among those denied visas, describing the decision as a form of political interference in sport at its worst.

In response, a U.S. government official confirmed that all necessary visas for Iran to compete in the World Cup — including those for players and essential support staff — had been issued.

Without directly addressing the denied applications, the official added, “We will not allow the Iranian team to misuse the system to smuggle terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”

In April, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that any concerns did not lie with the Iranian players themselves but with certain individuals they sought to bring along, hinting at possible connections with the Revolutionary Guard, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Taj himself is a former member of the Revolutionary Guard, according to reports from Iranian diaspora media.

The Middle East conflict began after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28.

A ceasefire on April 8 largely halted hostilities but has come under strain due to recent exchanges of fire between the U.S. and Iran.

Known as Team Melli, Iran is placed in Group G and will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, followed by a match against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

Before their departure, Iran defeated Mali 2-0 in a friendly match in Antalya and also beat Gambia in an earlier warm-up game.