Soccer-Iran World Cup players get US visas, official says, some staff waiting

By Emily Green

June 5 (Reuters) – Iran’s World Cup soccer players have received visas to enter the United States, a U.S. official said days before their first match, but Iranian media said on Saturday that some administrative staff had not got their visas.

The White House official told Reuters on Friday, 10 days before Iran play in Los Angeles, that the players had received their visas, after Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said on Thursday that they had not received them.

FIRST WORLD CUP WITH HOSTS RECEIVING WAR ADVERSARY

Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that those who had not received visas included Executive Director Mehdi Kharati, the secretary general of the soccer federation, Hedayat Mombini, and Media Director Mohsen Motamedkia.

Staff members without visas would travel to Mexico with the team while efforts to obtain visas continue, the agency said.

Iran’s football federation said the behaviour of co-hosts the U.S. “contradicts international sports laws” and it would take up the matter with soccer’s world governing body FIFA.

“The U.S. government, continuing its hostile actions against the national team … made a non-sporting and completely political decision to refuse visas for key managerial and administrative members of the Iranian national football team,” it said in a statement reported by Iran’s state media.

“This issue will definitely be pursued by the Football Federation through FIFA.

“As the responsible body, (FIFA) has the duty to follow up and finalise the visas for the managerial, executive, technical, and support staff of the Iranian national team who are currently in camp and whom the national team urgently needs.”

FIFA was not immediately available for comment outside business hours in the U.S.

GEOPOLITICAL CONTEST

The U.S., Mexico and Canada are co-hosting the biggest global sporting event, which starts on Wednesday.

The war on Iran, launched by the U.S. and Israel in February, has turned the World Cup into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing to use the tournament for political posturing.

This is the first World Cup since its inception in 1930 in which a host nation is set to receive a country it is at war with.

Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, due to the visa issues and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.

They are scheduled to land in Tijuana early on Sunday.

Iran are due to play their first Group G match on June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where they will also face Belgium before taking on Egypt in Seattle.

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The U.S. never formally said it did not want the Iran team to stay on its territory, Ambassador Pasandideh said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S. would not allow Iran to include in its delegation people linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.

Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s soccer federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December. He is a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran’s desire to compete in the World Cup underscored its efforts to reach a resolution in the war with Washington, Pasandideh said.

“Iran’s participation in the World Cup – even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy – shows that Iran seeks peace,” Pasandideh said through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City. 

Progress in peace talks between Iran and the U.S. has been slow, with both sides seemingly inching toward an interim agreement even as they continue to carry out military strikes.

(Reporting by Emily Green; Additional reporting by Eman Abouhassira, Jana Choukeir, Aadi Nair and Rohith Nair; Editing by Ken Ferris, Clare Fallon and William Mallard)