With only eleven days remaining until the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, the Islamic Republic's football team is still uncertain about its most basic requirements for participating in the tournament. No US visas have been issued, no Mexican visas are in hand, there is no unified narrative regarding the move of the team's camp from Arizona to Tijuana, and football federation officials cannot even explain who made this decision.
An informed source told IranWire on Thursday, May 28, that the Islamic Republic's Football Federation has requested FIFA to urgently follow up on the visa status of the players and delegation members. Federation directors had hoped that by Friday, the status of the US visas would at least be clarified, but this expectation also yielded no results.
IranWire sources state that the tone of the football federation directors in recent conversations with FIFA executives, and even in contacts with the US Embassy, has shifted noticeably. Managers who, until recently, spoke from a position of superiority and issued threats regarding visa issuance are now, according to an IranWire source, using "supplicating" language to beg FIFA to mediate and resolve the entry issues for players into the United States and Mexico.
