Roughly 150 Ghana football fans had US visa applications rejected ahead of the World Cup, and supporters from 27 of the 48 competing nations still require US visas to enter 1. The refusals are reported by Al Jazeera, which set them against the squad-level clearances now reaching the players.
The same week US officials approved Iran's squad after a months-long file , the access gap between participating teams and their travelling supporters widened rather than closed. A team can be processed as a delegation under diplomatic pressure and FIFA's coordination; an individual fan applies alone, with no governing body lobbying on their behalf.
That divide is sharpest where squad clearance was hardest fought, because the machinery that resolved the team's entry does nothing for the people who wanted to watch it. Twenty-seven of forty-eight nations sending teams to the United States cannot assume their own supporters will follow.
