{"id":54996,"date":"2026-06-14T17:31:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=54996"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T00:31:44","slug":"iran-team-arrives-in-us-after-fans-send-off-in-tijuana-ahead-of-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2026\/06\/14\/iran-team-arrives-in-us-after-fans-send-off-in-tijuana-ahead-of-world-cup-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran team arrives in US after fans\u2019 send-off in Tijuana ahead of World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thenewsmill.com – LOS ANGELES, Iran\u2019s national football team arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday ahead of their FIFA World Cup opener against New Zealand, scheduled for Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier, the team received an enthusiastic send-off from supporters at their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico. Fans gathered on a crowded sidewalk outside the team\u2019s hotel and chanted \u201cTeam Melli\u201d (Persian for \u201cnational team\u201d) as the players emerged individually for a walk to the team bus.<\/p>\n

Support staff wearing red Iran shirts distributed national flags to the crowd through green fencing, which fans waved vigorously as the players appeared. The players, dressed in navy blue polo shirts and beige trousers, acknowledged the reception by smiling and waving back. The scene was recorded by fans on their phones.<\/p>\n

A supporter held a yellow sign with black lettering expressing Mexico\u2019s solidarity with Iran, stating, \u201cIran, you will never walk alone. Mexico stands with you.\u201d One young boy, perched on someone\u2019s shoulders, held a FIFA World Cup sticker album opened to the Iran squad page. The crowd also sang, \u201cIran, brother, you are Mexican now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehdi Taj, president of the Iranian Football Federation, was present outside the hotel as the players departed, with many fans following the team bus as it left.<\/p>\n

The Iranian community in Tijuana is estimated at about 20 people, significantly smaller than the large community in Los Angeles, which hosts the largest population of Iranians outside Iran.<\/p>\n

Iran relocated its World Cup base camp from Arizona to Tijuana amid uncertainty over entry arrangements to the United States. This move followed weeks of concern about whether members of the delegation would be granted visas to attend the tournament.<\/p>\n

Iran is set to begin its Group G matches against New Zealand near Los Angeles on June 15, face Belgium on June 21, and conclude the group stage against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thenewsmill.com – LOS ANGELES, Iran\u2019s national football team arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":54997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":137,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54998,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54996\/revisions\/54998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}