Iran football team travels to Mexico through Spain

Iran's football team is set to leave for Spain this weekend on their way to Mexico for the World Cup. This is despite still waiting for their visas, according to the head of the football federation.

The 2026 World Cup will take place in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

As of now, neither the United States nor Mexico has given visas to the players. Iran will play all their group stage matches in the US and will base themselves in Mexico during the tournament.

“We will leave for Spain on Saturday, and from there the team will go directly to Tijuana in Mexico,” said Mehdi Taj, the football federation chief, during a sports program on state television.

“We will obtain a Mexican visa tomorrow or the day after, and then a US visa will be issued quickly,” Taj added.

Iran is in Group G and will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, then play Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

Taj mentioned that the Middle East war that started on February 28 changed everything for Team Melli.

“The situation in the country, and especially the war, has upended all our plans,” he said.

“We had arranged good warm-up matches, including one against Spain, which was cancelled in February.”

The team moved their World Cup base from Tucson in Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico due to the tensions from the ongoing war.

Currently, Iran is training in Turkey. On Friday, they won a friendly match against Gambia 3-1 in Antalya. They will have another warm-up match against Mali on Thursday.

Taj also mentioned that the team’s World Cup preparations have faced “financial difficulties” because of the economic crisis in the country and the steep drop in the rial against the dollar.