Iran’s FIFA World Cup 2026 team will travel to Mexico as the US visa dispute rages.

Canada and Mexico.

Iranian media said that the Iran squad left Turkey, where they had been practicing, on Saturday in order to travel to Mexico.

They will be stationed in Tijuana, a border city in northwest Mexico, for the duration of the competition, and are anticipated to arrive early on Sunday.

Iran’s three group matches are scheduled to take place on US soil, making it the first World Cup in which a host country receives a squad from a rival nation.

In late May, Iran moved their facility from Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana.

During their nearly three-week stay at a training camp in Antalya, the squad applied for permits to visit Mexico, Canada, and the United States while they were in Turkey.

Tom Barrack, Washington’s envoy to Turkey, stated on X late Friday that the players acquired their US visas on the eve of their trip to Mexico.

However, Iran’s embassy in Turkey responded angrily, claiming that 15 administrative and managerial personnel were affected by the denial of visas for support workers, according to an Iranian diplomat and state television.

The embassy wrote on X on Saturday, “You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” urging FIFA, the body that oversees world football, “to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules.”

Iran’s ambassador to Mexico stated on Saturday that the team had been informed that, in accordance with the terms of their visa,