Iran touches down in Tijuana as World Cup, politics intersect

I’ve corrected the AP style, grammar, punctuation, tense consistency, quotation formatting, and team references (AP style treats teams and countries as singular entities). Key fixes include “Iran is scheduled,” “Iran’s team was under pressure,” removal of stray characters, proper quote punctuation, and consistent past/present tense usage.

Iran’s national football team arrived in Tijuana early Sunday ahead of three World Cup matches in the United States, with rising geopolitical tensions adding an extra layer of significance to its participation in the tournament.

The squad landed shortly after 5:00 a.m. local time (12:00 p.m. GMT) in the Mexican border city, just south of San Diego, following an overnight flight from Türkiye, where it had spent the past three weeks preparing for the competition.

As the team bus departed Tijuana International Airport, it briefly stopped to acknowledge about 20 supporters waving Iranian flags. A heavy security presence, including military personnel and police escorts, accompanied the team on its journey to the hotel.

Football holds a unique place in Iranian society, uniting millions across political and social divides. Yet the national team’s World Cup campaign has unfolded against a backdrop of domestic political uncertainty, conflict with the United States and persistent questions over whether the squad would be able to enter U.S. territory to fulfill its tournament schedule.

Even its presence in Tijuana is politically tinged. The Iranian federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico because of uncertainty over whether players and staff would be granted visas and a growing belief in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told Reuters.

Iran fans look on as Team Iran arrives at Tijuana International Airport for World Cup, Tijuana, Mexico, June 7, 2026. (Reuters Photo)

Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei told FIFA that the team ideally would have arrived in Tijuana last week to adapt to the time difference.

“Normally, in tournaments like this, humanitarian and ethical considerations should come before technical matters, and I believe those considerations were not extended to us,” he said after arriving at Tijuana airport.

Iranian defender Ehsan Hajsafi said the team has faced “very difficult circumstances” since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, but that the players are in excellent physical condition and “fully ready” for the tournament.

Iran is scheduled to play its first two Group G matches near Los Angeles, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, before facing Egypt in Seattle on June 26. Iran and the United States could meet in the round of 32 if both teams finish second in their groups.

Pressure on players

This is the first World Cup since its inception in 1930 in which a host nation is set to receive a country with which it is at war.

But tensions with the United States are just one of several factors that have turned the World Cup into a political battleground for Iran’s team.

Widespread protests that erupted late last year, calling for an end to clerical rule, culminated in a sweeping crackdown that killed more than 2,000 people in the deadliest unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The United States and Israel then attacked Iran on Feb. 28, sparking a monthslong war that continues.

Iran’s football team was under pressure from all sides, said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.

“It has become a lose-lose situation for the players,” Milani said. “There are pressures on players not to play with the team, pressure to show solidarity with the people, and the athletes are just there to play football.”

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Iran’s team was both cheered and jeered after refusing to sing the national anthem, which was viewed as an act of solidarity with anti-government protesters back home. Since then, the pressure on the team has only increased, Milani said.

Visa drama

After weeks of uncertainty, the United States awarded visas to all players Friday, just 10 days before Iran’s first match.

But several members of the Iranian delegation were not granted visas, including “key managerial and administrative members,” according to Iran’s football federation, which accused the United States of breaching its host obligations and violating FIFA regulations.

Pasandideh said 15 of the 70 members of the delegation who arrived in Tijuana on Sunday had not been granted visas to enter the United States.

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment about the dispute.

A U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Friday that the administration had issued “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff.”

The official added: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the U.S. under false pretenses.”

Tonatiuh Guillen, who headed Mexico’s national immigration agency from 2018 to 2019, said Mexico’s willingness to host the Iran squad is a message of “solidarity at a moment of emergency.”

DAILYSABAH