Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters in Mexico City on 12 April that FIFA had decided Iran's Group G matches would not be moved out of the United States. 'FIFA ultimately decided that the matches cannot be moved from their original venues. It would make logistics too complicated,' she said 1. The statement is the first explicit public answer FIFA has given to the relocation question raised by Iran's sports ministry on 7 April .
The routing matters. Sheinbaum is the head of state of one of the three host nations and an unusual venue for a FIFA decision; the choice to deliver the rejection through Mexico City rather than via FIFA's own communications channels reflects how settled the question had become in the federation track. Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) representatives had already heard the same answer in person 11 days earlier in Antalya.
The legal substrate behind FIFA's position was reported by Bloomberg on 6 April: under the host-city agreements signed for the 2026 tournament, FIFA cannot relocate matches without unanimous consent from the United States, Mexico, Canada and all 16 host cities . That removed any negotiable offer before the political demand was made. Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali's 7 April condition ran into a ceiling FIFA's lawyers had identified before any minister picked up the file.
The Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Iran's designated training base, has continued preparations for the squad's arrival without any stand-down instruction . Director Sarah Horvath says no message has come from FIFA or from Iran asking the facility to halt. The 12 April rejection therefore lands as confirmation rather than escalation, and the 30 April Vancouver Congress now opens with the most contentious item on its likely agenda already resolved.
