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2026 FIFA World Cup
11JUN

Iran coaches from across the border

3 min read
09:02UTC

Iran's 26-man squad landed in Tijuana at 5am on 8 June and will cross into the US only on match days, with 14 staff still locked out.

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Key takeaway

Iran runs its World Cup from a Mexican base camp after the host barred its federation chief.

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.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Iran qualified for the 2026 World Cup but faces a complication: the US government has refused to allow several of its football federation's staff to enter the country. The players themselves got US visas, but 14 support staff, including the federation's secretary-general and vice-president, were denied. FFIRI president Mehdi Taj, who is identified in media reports as a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard (the IRGC, a powerful military force the US designates as a terrorist organisation), has been blocked from entering North America twice since April. To manage this, Iran's players flew to Tijuana, a Mexican city right on the US border south of San Diego. They live and train in Mexico, then cross into the United States only on the days they play their group matches, returning to Tijuana immediately after. FIFA's president Infantino said there is no backup plan: if Iran cannot participate under these conditions, there is no replacement squad. No other World Cup team is operating this way.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The core structural constraint is the US Treasury and State Department's IRGC-designation framework. After the US designated the IRGC a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 2019, any individual with documented prior IRGC service faces an automatic hold in the non-immigrant visa and admissibility systems.

Mehdi Taj's reported former IRGC commander role puts him in the hardest category for any administrative waiver; Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated publicly that players are welcome but IRGC-linked personnel will not be admitted.

FIFA's force-majeure and host-agreement architecture creates the second constraint. Article 6 of the 2026 World Cup Regulations gives FIFA sole discretion over withdrawal consequences, but FFIRI has not invoked the exit clause. A federation that has not formally triggered force majeure is, in FIFA's reading, a federation that has chosen to play. That reading locks Iran into participation under degraded conditions with no contractual leverage to demand that FIFA compel the US to admit its staff.

The Tijuana arrangement reflects a third structural factor: Mexico's co-host status. Because the tournament's infrastructure spans three countries, Iran can base itself on Mexican soil where its full delegation has access, crossing only for matches. Without that co-host arrangement, Iran would face a starker choice between participation with all staff blocked or withdrawal.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    Iran's players will have no access to their full technical staff, including the federation secretary-general, during any training day of the tournament, reducing coaching coordination between Tijuana sessions and match-day execution.

    Immediate · Assessed
  • Risk

    If a player requires medical or administrative attention by a staff member denied US entry during a match, Iran's on-field delegation may lack personnel authorised to act on behalf of the federation.

    Immediate · Reported
  • Precedent

    The Tijuana split-camp model establishes that a World Cup participant can operate from a co-host nation's territory while competing entirely in a third nation, a template relevant for future multi-nation tournaments.

    Long term · Assessed
Sources:The National
Mentions:FFIRI →Gianni Infantino →Iran →Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) →Mexico →Tijuana →Antalya →South Africa →World Cup →Tehran →San Diego →Moscow →FIFA →United States →Mehdi Taj →
First Reported In

Update #17 · Host turns back a World Cup referee

The National· 9 Jun 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Iran Arrives in Tijuana, 14 Staff Barred
Iran's earlier arrival in Tijuana with 14 staff already denied (ID:3981) was the operational precursor; the new event is the confirmed base-camp operation from 8 June with no increase in cleared staff.
Occurred 7 Jun 2026
Read story →
Iran flies to Tijuana, no US visas
Iran's squad boarding the Antalya flight without US visas (ID:3911) directly led to the Tijuana base-camp arrangement.
Occurred 6 Jun 2026
Read story →
Host turns back a World Cup referee
The Artan barring escalates the access-denial pattern that also characterises Iran's staff situation; both are cited together in multiple sources as constituting the same access pattern.
Occurred 7 Jun 2026
Read story →
This Event
Iran coaches from across the border
A qualified nation is running its World Cup preparation by remote coordination from Mexico because the host has barred its federation president and senior officials.
Different Perspectives
FIFA
FIFA
FIFA's 48-team format, projecting $13.1 billion in 2026-cycle revenue against $7.5 billion for 2019-2022, opened on 11 June despite simultaneous legal, labour and security crises. Expanding to 48 sides structurally reduced the stakes of individual group results, which is both its commercial logic and the mechanism that let the build-up machinery run without cancellation.
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil open Group C against Morocco on 13 June missing Neymar, Rodrygo, Estevao and Militao; Ancelotti expressed no regrets carrying an injured Neymar and targets the Haiti fixture on 20 June for his return. Morocco's full-strength XI is rated higher by performance index than Brazil's depleted opener lineup, making this the most awkward first fixture any pre-tournament favourite has drawn.
United States
United States
The co-host avoided its most damaging opening image when UNITE HERE Local 11 reached a tentative deal with Legends on 9 June, pulling a threatened strike off the table days before Pochettino's 4-3-3 faces Paraguay. The agreement requires a ratification vote this week; rejection returns the threat before the first US match.
South Africa
South Africa
Bafana Bafana returned to the World Cup after a 16-year absence in Hugo Broos's final tournament before retirement, arriving at the Azteca opener with a counter-attacking shape to exploit possession-heavy hosts at altitude. Broos told his players to silence the Mexican crowd; his pace through Appollis and Mofokeng sets the tone for Group A.
Mexico
Mexico
Mexico opened the tournament at home on 11 June carrying a 0W-5L-2D opener record and a sold-out Azteca, while the official Zocalo fan zone was occupied by teachers and families of the disappeared on the same morning. Sheinbaum's offer of 18 alternative venues rather than a clearance order reflects her calculation that force produces worse headlines than co-existence.
Norwegian Football Federation
Norwegian Football Federation
NFF president Lise Klaveness sent a letter of support backing FairSquare's Article 15 ethics complaint against Infantino, explicitly noting Norway was acting alone as a deliberate signal. The filing converted an external NGO campaign into the first internal federation action against the FIFA president, arriving in the same fortnight as Platini's Paris criminal complaint.