Iranian soccer stars touch down in Tijuana ahead of Sofi Stadium games
Iran’s soccer stars touched down just miles from the California border Sunday as they arrived in Tijuana ahead of a politically charged World Cup campaign with two blockbuster matches in Los Angeles.Photos showed members of national team arriving in the Mexico border city after an overnight flight from Turkey, where the squad had spent the past three weeks training for the tournament.The team landed shortly after 5 a.m.in the town across from San Diego, which will serve as their base throughout the World Cup.Federation officials briefly waved as military and police escorts then accompanied the squad to a Marriott hotel in Tijuana, Reuters reported.Iran is scheduled to play New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15 before returning to Southern California to face Belgium on June 21.The team will then travel to Seattle for a June 26 showdown with Egypt.
But the journey to North America was anything but straightforward.Iran’s football federation shifted the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico at the last minute amid uncertainty over U.S.visas and concerns in Tehran that the squad limit its presence on American soil, according to Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh.After weeks of skepticism, U.S.
authorities approved visas for Iranian players on Friday—just 10 days before the team’s opening match.The dispute, however, didn’t end there.Iran’s football federation said several members of its delegation, including key managerial and administrative staff, were denied visas.
Pasandideh said 15 of the 70 members of the traveling party who arrived in Tijuana were still unable to enter the United States.The U.S.State Department said it had issued “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff.”“We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the U.S.
under false pretenses,” the official added.Iranian football federation president Mehdi Taj blast...