Iran's full 26-man squad landed in Tijuana at about 5am on Monday 8 June after an overnight flight from Antalya, and will cross into the United States only on match days . The squad is now based in Mexico, a co-host, while fourteen support staff remain denied US entry, among them FFIRI (Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran) secretary-general Hedayat Mombeini and vice-president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi 1. Federation president Mehdi Taj, identified in Iranian and Canadian reporting as a former commander of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), has been refused entry to North America twice since April.
The arrangement is the end-state of a standoff that built through the spring. Iran flew out of Antalya without US visas for its staff after a self-set deadline passed , and an earlier landing in Tijuana already counted denied officials before this confirmed base-camp operation . The number of cleared staff has not risen since. Iranian outlets frame the blocks as the host obstructing the team; FIFA again points to host-government discretion over entry.
Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, has said "there is no Plan B, because there is no replacement squad" 2, language that closes off any contingency and commits FIFA to Iran's participation as it stands. The practical result two days out is a federation managing its World Cup from a Mexican border city, coordinating with Tehran, and crossing a frontier each time it has a match to play. FIFA recognises federations and host governments as its counterparties, which routes the entry dispute away from Zurich by design.
