The Iranian national soccer team will have to enter and exit the United States on the day of each World Cup match, the Iranian ambassador to Mexico said, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
“We can enter in the morning and we have to leave the country on the same day“, Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters.
The Iranian national soccer team will be at a base camp in Tijuana, in northern Mexico. Yesterday, it left Antalya in Turkey for Mexico. The Iranian national team trained in Antalya for 15 days.
The World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada starts on June 11. It is being organized for the first time in three countries.
The Iranian national team received visas to the United States, but most of the staff accompanying them did not. The Iranian embassy in Turkey described this refusal as the "highest degree of targeted discriminatory treatment" against the Iranian national football team.
According to the Iranian ambassador to Mexico, 15 members of the team's administrative and support staff are affected by these visa restrictions. Iran was one of the first countries to qualify for the World Cup, but its participation has been in doubt since the start of Israeli-American strikes on the country on February 28.
The hostilities ended with a ceasefire on April 8, but it appears to be rapidly collapsing after weeks of threats and a resumption of strikes by both the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf in recent days.
Hours after the US confirmed on Friday that it had granted visas to Iranian footballers, the country announced new strikes against Iran, which retaliated by targeting Gulf states.
The uncertainty over obtaining visas forced the national team to move its training camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico. The team will be based there for the entire tournament, but its three group stage matches are scheduled to be played in the United States.
Iran will play its first World Cup match on June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, before facing Belgium on June 21 in Los Angeles and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.