Iran footballers hand passports to US embassy for World Cup visa approval

Iran will fly to Mexico on Saturday to their home base at the 2026 World Cup, while all their games will be played in the US.Iran’s football squad, whose participation in the World Cup remains uncertain, have handed their passports to the United States embassy in Turkiye for visas, the head of their football federation has said.Mehdi Taj said on Friday that Iran were following instructions from FIFA, world football’s governing body.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Man City threatens legal action against Real Madrid following Haaland claimlist 2 of 4History-making qualifier Chwalinska sets up Andreeva French Open finallist 3 of 4Sooryavanshi in line for T20 call as India fast-track 15-year-old to toplist 4 of 4Sabalenka ‘mentally off track’ as French Open exit made her want to ‘quit’end of listTheir quest for the visas comes as Iran and the US remain locked in negotiations to end the Middle East war that began in February with a massive wave of US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic.“Yesterday, I had discussions with FIFA regarding the US visas,” Taj said. “We were told to submit all passports to the US embassy in Ankara.”The Iranian team is due to fly from Turkiye to Spain on Saturday before travelling on to their base camp in Mexico, which has issued visas to the squad.“We are waiting to see what happens today or, at the latest, tomorrow, because our national team needs to receive these passports and travel with them to Tijuana,” said Taj.Taj said the Iranian football federation had “raised certain points and requests, in such a way that FIFA was told that if they [the Americans] do not issue visas for the players, some members of our technical staff, and other sections of our delegation, we may make other decisions”.“My assessment is that all visas will be issued in full, and there most likely will not be any problem in this regard,” he added.The Iranians relocated their World Cup base, which initially was planned to be in Tucson, Arizona, to the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana.