Iran’s national soccer team has been granted entry into the United States just days before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, ending months of speculation about whether geopolitical tensions would keep the squad from competing on American soil.
A visa saga months in the making
The Iranian squad received their US visas around June 5-6, 2026. That timeline matters because the first match of the World Cup is scheduled for June 15 in Los Angeles, giving the team barely a week to settle logistics in a country that, diplomatically speaking, isn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for Iranian officials.
Rather than basing themselves on US soil, Iran’s team arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, around June 7-8 after completing a training camp in Turkey. The plan is to operate from Tijuana and cross into the US only on match days, using multiple-entry visa provisions designed for exactly this kind of arrangement.
Not everyone on the Iranian delegation made it through, either. Some members of the technical staff were reportedly denied entry into the US, adding another layer of frustration to an already tense process.
