Mexico has agreed to let Iran base its World Cup squad on its territory after the United States made clear it did not want the team to stay overnight there, President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Fifa later confirmed that Iran’s training base for the tournament will be Centro Xoloitzcuintle in Tijuana, Mexico.
Sheinbaum said Mexico had no reason to deny the request. “The United States does not want the Iranian team to stay overnight, but they are going to play three matches there,” she said. “So they asked us: ‘Can they stay overnight in Mexico?’ And we said: ‘Yes, no problem.’ We have no problem.”
The arrangement matters because all three of Iran’s matches are scheduled in the United States: against New Zealand on 15 June in Los Angeles, Belgium on 21 June in Los Angeles and Egypt on 26 June in Seattle. Iran had originally been assigned Tucson, Arizona, as its World Cup base, but that plan was overtaken by a broader dispute over where the team could lodge while the tournament is under way.
Iran is preparing for the competition in Antalya, southern Turkey, while its sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, said Fifa had promised that all of the country’s players would receive visas to play in the U.S. this summer. He said, “The Fifa president promised us that all our players would receive visas. There is no reason why our players should not receive visas.”
The Iranian football association has also presented Fifa with 10 conditions for participation, including visa access for players, coaches and officials who completed military service with the IRGC. Some members of the squad went to the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Thursday to submit visa applications, underscoring how much of Iran’s World Cup build-up has been consumed by paperwork and permissions rather than tactics and training.
The backdrop is unusually fraught. The World Cup is being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but there has been uncertainty around Iran’s participation because of the ongoing war in the Middle East and related security concerns. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran’s players will be welcome at the tournament, while individuals with links to the IRGC could face entry restrictions.
For Iran, the immediate question is no longer where the team will sleep. It is whether every player, coach and official needed for the tournament can get through the door in time for a campaign that will unfold almost entirely on U.S. soil.
