Iran’s national football team has already reached Mexico for the upcoming World Cup and is training in Tijuana. All three of Iran’s matches are in the United States — but the team cannot stay there throughout. Instead, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the Iranian team may enter the United States the day before each match. The information was given on Tuesday local time.
According to Reuters, reports over the weekend had quoted Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, as saying the Iranian team would have to enter the United States only on match day and leave the same day — raising questions about the team’s logistics, travel planning and on-field performance. A DHS spokesperson rejected that claim, saying there is no requirement for Iran to arrive and leave on the same day. “These statements are not accurate,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Thanks to the generosity of the President of the United States (Donald Trump), the Iranian team will be able to arrive the day before their matches.”
Ambassador Pasandideh, in an interview with Reuters in Tijuana on Monday through an interpreter, criticised the US authorities, saying visas had not been issued for some Iran Football Federation staff — though the visas that were granted contain no bar on overnight stays: “Their visas do not specify any time by which they must leave.” After long uncertainty, the United States granted visas to all of Iran’s players last Friday — just 10 days before their first match. According to the Iran Football Federation, several important members of the delegation did not receive visas, including “important management and administrative members”; Iran’s embassy in Mexico said the list includes the team manager, two analysts, the media director and a representative of the foreign ministry.
Iran open their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June, face Belgium in Los Angeles on 21 June, and play their third match against Egypt in Seattle on 26 June. The team’s training camp was initially set for Arizona, but the plan changed after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February. In March, US President Donald Trump said Iran was welcome to take part in the World Cup, while remarking that the Iranian team’s presence in the United States was not “appropriate for their own lives and safety.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report