{"id":54924,"date":"2026-05-23T15:27:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T22:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=54924"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T22:27:19","slug":"ffiri-fifa-approves-world-cup-base-camp-switch-from-us-to-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2026\/05\/23\/ffiri-fifa-approves-world-cup-base-camp-switch-from-us-to-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"FFIRI: Fifa approves World Cup base camp switch from US to Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian &#8211; ANTALYA, <strong>The president of the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) said Saturday the team\u2019s World Cup training base has been moved to Mexico from the United States after getting approval from Fifa.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mehdi Taj, president of the Iran Football Federation, announced the decision Saturday in a statement issued by the federation\u2019s media relations official. FIFA has not confirmed the move.<\/p>\n<p>Iran had been scheduled to train in Tucson, Arizona, but a move has been a possibility because of uncertainty surrounding the war in the Middle East and security concerns. Officials at Tucson\u2019s Kino Sports Complex had no comment when asked by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>The federation says the team will now be based in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego. This year\u2019s World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July and is being co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll team base camps for the countries participating in the World Cup must be approved [by] FIFA,\u201d Taj said in his statement. \u201cFortunately, following the requests we submitted and the meetings we held with Fifa and World Cup officials in Istanbul, as well as the webinar meeting we had yesterday in Tehran with the respected Fifa secretary general, our request to change the team\u2019s base from the United States to Mexico was approved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iran play Group G games in Los Angeles against New Zealand on 15 June and Belgium on 21 June, then faces Egypt on 26 June 26 in Seattle. They are appearing in their fourth straight World Cup and seventh overall, though they have never advanced past the first round.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said moving the base camp will resolve potential visa issues since the team will enter the US through Mexico. Taj said that the team \u201cmay even be able to travel to and from Mexico using Iran Air flights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It was reported in March, after the US and Israel began joint airstrikes on Iran, that Fifa was unwilling to switch the team\u2019s World Cup matches to Mexico. Donald Trump said at that time that the \u201clife and safety\u201d of Iran\u2019s players could be at risk if they travel to the US.<\/p>\n<p>At last month\u2019s Fifa congress in Vancouver, president Gianni Infantino said Iran would play their World Cup games in the US as scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me start at the outset by confirming straight away, for those who maybe want to say something else or write something else, that of course Iran will be participating at the Fifa World Cup 2026,\u201d he said then. \u201cAnd of course, Iran will play in the United States of America. The reason for that is simple, because we have to unite. We have to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian &#8211; ANTALYA, The president of the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) said Saturday the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":54925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":126,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54926,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54924\/revisions\/54926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}