The United States said on Friday that it had issued Usa World Cup visas to Iranian players and the team’s necessary support staff, but Iran said key members of its backroom operation were still denied entry less than two weeks before its opening match in Los Angeles.
The timing matters because Iran is due to begin its tournament on 15 June, and the dispute now hangs over who will actually travel with the squad for the 2026 World Cup. Iran’s embassy in Turkey accused Washington of “politically biased interference in sport” and said the latest refusals amounted to a “whitewash,” while also warning that the treatment of the national team had been escalated to its highest level.
Marco Rubio told lawmakers earlier this week that Iran’s football delegation would not be allowed to include people linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a line that helps explain why the visa process has become so politically charged. State-linked Iranian media said the head of the football federation and his deputy were among those denied entry, and the embassy said a large portion of the managerial, executive and technical staff had been turned away. United States officials said they had approved visas for players and “necessary support staff,” but did not address the wider complaints from Tehran.
Iran secured its place at the tournament by finishing top of its qualification group in March 2025, then shifted its training base from Tucson, Arizona, to Mexico in late May as the visa dispute sharpened. The team is still due to face Belgium in California and Egypt in Seattle in its other two group games, but the travel row has underlined how different this World Cup will be: it is being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and for the first time a host nation is receiving the team of a country it is at war with. Several players in the Iranian squad have already completed mandatory military service with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which has only added to the scrutiny around the delegation.
For now, the match schedule is fixed and the team is expected to arrive, but the unanswered question is whether Iran will reach Los Angeles with the staff it says it needs — or with a delegation pared back by a decision Washington appears unwilling to revisit.
