TEHRAN, June 6 — Iran on Saturday slammed World Cup host the United States over what it called “discriminatory treatment” in not granting visas for some members of the Iranian delegation to the tournament.

“Why do you not say that visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team?” the Iranian embassy in Turkey said in a post on X, referring to an earlier announcement by US envoy Tom Barrack that visas had been granted to players.

“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy added.

On Friday, Barrack praised the US embassy in Ankara over its “work processing visas for Iran’s national football team” after the head of the Iranian football federation, Mehdi Taj, said on the same day that Iranian delegation have submitted passports for visas.

But reports on Saturday from the Iranian media, including sports media Varzesh3, said members of the delegation, including Taj along with executive members and analysts have not been granted visas.

On Friday, Taj told state television that his “assessment is that all visas will be issued in full, and there most likely will not be any problem in this regard”.

The Iranians relocated their World Cup base, which was initially planned to be in Tucson, Arizona, to the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana.

All three of the team’s group matches are in the United States.

Team Melli is to kick off their tournament with two games in Los Angeles against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, and to play Egypt on June 27 in Seattle. — AFP

ISTANBUL, June 3 — Iran will play their final World Cup warm-up behind closed doors in Turkiye tomorrow before ‌departing for their tournament base in Mexico on Saturday, the Iranian FA (FFIRI) said on Wednesday.

Although it was one of the first teams to qualify, Iran’s participation in the World Cup ‌has been in doubt since the US and Israel launched air strikes on the Islamic Republic in late February.

The squad have played three friendlies in two training camps in Antalya since the start of the war - losing to Nigeria and beating Costa Rica and Gambia - and on Thursday will face Mali in the Turkish sea resort.

“Considering the importance of the Iranian national football team’s friendly match against Mali, and in line with the tactical objectives of Iran’s head coach, tomorrow’s match against Mali will be held behind closed doors and ‌without media attendance,” FFIRI said in a statement.

The FFIRI persuaded FIFA to allow ⁠the team to swap its tournament ⁠base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, and from ⁠there they will commute across ⁠the border to their ⁠first two group games against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles.

Their third and final Group G game against Egypt is in Seattle.

US Secretary of State ⁠Marco Rubio on Tuesday said Washington had “no problem” with the Iranian team entering the country, but would not let officials or staff with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accompany them.

“What we’re not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know ⁠have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature, so we were going to watch ⁠that very closely,” Rubio said during a House of Representatives committee hearing.

Both the US ⁠and Canada, ⁠who are co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico, classify the IRGC as a “terrorist entity.”

FFIRI President Mehdi Taj was refused entry into Canada for the FIFA Congress in late April because ‌of his links to the elite military force.

Iran are scheduled to kick off their campaign against New Zealand on June 15. — Reuters