The US is easing its restrictions on Iran’s World Cup team, allowing the squad to travel into the country two days before its next match, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
The team will still be required to leave after Friday’s match in Seattle, a spokesperson for the department said. Iran’s Football Federation confirmed that the team will leave its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday for Seattle following news of the eased restrictions.
“This was planned on our end,” Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force, told The Associated Press.
“We were going to look at how the first two movements went, and if they went smoothly, we would extend the extra day in light of the longer travel time.”
The policy change was first reported by US media outlet NBC News and comes as officials from both countries negotiate over how to end the war in Iran, which the US launched with Israel on the 28th of February.
Iran’s squad has complained about the travel restrictions levied on the team, and the challenges it has faced since the outbreak of war. Iran in March sought to move its group-stage matches to Mexico, with which it has diplomatic ties.
Its request to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana was granted two weeks before the team’s arrival. Several team officials and members of the support staff have been barred from traveling into the US with the team.
For the first two matches, near Los Angeles, the team was not permitted to travel until the day before. Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei repeatedly said that restriction disadvantaged the team, especially when it had less than 24 hours on the ground before its afternoon match on Sunday.
“Right now we need recovery more than anything,” said Ghalenoei through an interpreter after the 0-0 draw against Belgium in the group’s second matchday fixtures. “The conditions have been extremely hard for us.”
It’s not uncommon for teams to travel a day before the match, and is in line with FIFA regulations, which state that “each team shall travel from its team base camp to the match venue one day before matchday (MD‑1) and in exceptional cases on MD‑2, and shall return to their team base camp after the match (on MD/MD+1).”
But Iran had asked for more time to acclimate to host cities and recover after matches, especially for the more than 1,900-kilometre trip to Seattle. The team is scheduled to train on Thursday at the University of Washington.
“We don’t ask for much. We just ask for the same procedure as for all the other 47 teams,” Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh said on Sunday. “Hopefully we can bring everyone who is involved and help us with us.”
The Iran team has also said it experienced difficulties entering and exiting the US each time it made the 204-kilometre flight between Tijuana and Los Angeles.
The typically short trip took five hours the day before its first match against New Zealand, team captain Mehdi Taremi said.
Hours before Sunday’s match against Belgium, US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News the Iranians had “tried to get somebody in yesterday” who had direct ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
In a statement, the soccer federation vociferously pushed back, calling the claim “an outright and undeniable lie.”
Iran’s players and coaches have mostly steered clear of outright commentary on the war. “We are here for football, not politics,” Ghalenoei said Saturday.
But the team hasn’t shied from highlighting the victims of a deadly missile strike on an elementary school at the start of the war in the Middle East, likely launched by the US.
Players wore gold-coloured pins with the number “168” on their jackets when they disembarked in Mexico on 7 June, referencing the number of people killed in the attack, mostly young girls.
It’s unclear whether Iran’s upcoming opponent, Egypt, will also be allowed to arrive in Seattle two days early. After its 3-1 victory against New Zealand in Vancouver Sunday, Egypt asked to fly directly to Seattle.
FIFA denied that request, citing a lack of security resources to accommodate the last-minute demand. Egypt returned to its base camp in Spokane, Washington, a 45-minute flight from Seattle.