Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n
Iran’s national football team will base themselves in Mexico during the upcoming World Cup, travelling to the United States only for their matches, after Washington reportedly refused to host the squad for the duration of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed the arrangement on Monday, stating that FIFA had approached her government following the US decision. Ms Sheinbaum indicated that American authorities did not wish for the Iranian team to remain in the country throughout the 11 June to 19 July competition, despite their three Group G fixtures being scheduled there.<\/p>\n
“We have no reason to deny them the possibility of staying in Mexico,” she told reporters at her daily press conference.<\/p>\n
The Iranian side is set to play New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June, Belgium in Los Angeles on 21 June, and Egypt in Seattle on 26 June.<\/p>\n
Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the matter.<\/p>\n
![\"Panoramic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2277640455...jpeg\")
Panoramic view of Estadio Caliente on May 25, 2026 in Tijuana, Mexico. Iran Football Federation announced they will base their 2026 World Cup camp in Tijuana, Mexico after FIFA approved a move from Arizona to ease visa and security concerns. (Photo by Francisco Vega\/Getty Images) (Getty)<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said \u200cin March that Iran was welcome to participate in the World Cup but that he did not believe it was appropriate for Iran’s team to be \u200cin the United States “for their own life and safety.” Mehdi \u200cTaj, head of Iran’s football federation, said on Saturday the team’s base would be moved from Arizona to the Mexican border city of Tijuana during the tournament. FIFA confirmed the move on \u2060Monday. Taj added that the swap would help avoid visa-related complications and allow direct Iran Air flights to Mexico.<\/p>\n
Iran’s World Cup plans have been under scrutiny since late February, when the United States joined Israel in attacks on Iran, triggering a war that raised doubts over whether Tehran would send its team to play in one of the host countries.<\/p>\n
In March, Taj said Iran was in talks \u200cwith FIFA about moving its group matches to Mexico on safety \u200bgrounds, and Sheinbaum said Mexico would be open to hosting them. \u200cFIFA kept the schedule unchanged.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty fueled \u2060wider speculation about Iran’s place at the tournament. In April, Trump’s envoy \u2060for global partnerships, Paolo Zampolli, suggested Italy should replace Iran, prompting a dismissive response from Italian officials \u200cand FIFA.<\/p>\n
Iran qualified for a \u200bfourth consecutive World Cup by topping its \u200cgroup in the third round of \u200bAsian qualifying last year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[44053,13360,36017,5084,34,2980,2979,201,2576,1023,43204],"class_list":["post-131391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-baja-california-peninsula","tag-color-image","tag-general-view","tag-horizontal","tag-iran","tag-latin-america","tag-mexico","tag-photography","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-tijuana"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116640071323424494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}