After a fighting 2-2 draw against New Zealand in their FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G opener, Iran were forced to leave the United States immediately. Usually, teams are afforded time to rest and recuperate after a gruelling fixture, but for Iran, even normalcy has become a luxury. Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei slammed the US move to push the team out of California and back to Tijuana, Mexico, right after their match against New Zealand concluded. Iran captain Mehdi Taremi has called for FIFA’s intervention, as the tournament continues to be a nightmare for the team from a logistical point of view.
Iran were originally meant to establish their tournament headquarters and training base in Tucson, Arizona. However, escalating political tensions with the US forced FIFA to shift Iran’s base to Tijuana. Although the team’s base is in Mexico, all of Iran’s Group G games are to be held on US soil.
The Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood, where Iran squared off against New Zealand, is the same venue where they will face Belgium on June 21. The team’s final group game is scheduled for Lumen Field in Seattle.
The Iran squad were surprised to be told they had to fly out of the country the moment their opening match ended. Ghalenoei noted that these disruptive travel arrangements severely limited the squad’s ability to acclimatise, describing the team as the “most oppressed in the World Cup”.
“We spent so much time in the air commuting; they didn’t even give us time to recover. After the game today, they told us we had to leave immediately. Recovery time is vital, yet we have been ordered back to our camp in Tijuana. We are really troubled by that. I think our team is perhaps the most repressed in the entire tournament,” he said.
FIFA Needs To Do More: Iran
FIFA President Gianni Infantino visited the Iranian dressing room after the match to offer moral support, but Taremi insisted that more is required.
“For sure, he wants to help us, but there are other factors at play-everyone knows it. I don’t need to mention specifics because the situation is obvious. FIFA has to help us more than this. Let’s see what happens, but currently, everything is a disaster for us,” Taremi said.
The Iranian team arrived in LA on June 14, just a day before their scheduled opener. Amidst ongoing protests regarding the US-Iran political situation, local law enforcement agencies heavily cordoned off the team’s hotel and training pitches to manage a volatile mix of fans, media, and anti-regime protesters.
Notably, Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian diaspora outside of Iran. Organisers and law enforcement were acutely aware that a prolonged stay by the team would serve as a flashpoint for major political activity. Seeing thousands of anti-regime protesters gather outside the stadium before and during the New Zealand match, agencies opted for extra caution. Keeping the team stationed at an LA hotel between matches would have required a massive, continuous, and highly volatile security detail.
While US agencies have their reasons for the immediate exit, it remains true that the 2026 FIFA World Cup has not begun on a level playing field for the Asian giants.