Iran criticizes U.S. for “discriminatory” visa refusals of World Cup staff.

On Saturday, Iran criticized the United States, the host nation of the World Cup, for what it described as “discriminatory treatment” after the U.S. denied visas to several members of the Iranian delegation.

The Iranian embassy in Turkey posted on X: “Why do you not say that visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others who are an integral part of any national football team?” The post referred to an earlier statement by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that visas had been granted to the players.

The embassy added, “You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level.”

Earlier on Friday, Barrack praised the U.S. embassy in Ankara for its “work processing visas for Iran’s national football team” after the head of the Iranian football federation, Mehdi Taj, said that the delegation had submitted passports for visa processing.

However, Saturday reports from Iranian media, including sports outlet Varzesh3, claimed that members of the delegation—Taj, executive officials, and analysts—had not received visas.

On Friday, Taj told state television that his “assessment is that all visas will be issued in full, and there most likely will not be any problem in this regard.”

Iran has moved its World Cup base from Tucson, Arizona, to the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana.

All three of the team’s group matches are scheduled to take place in the United States.

Team Melli will begin the tournament with two games in Los Angeles against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, and will play Egypt on June 27 in Seattle.

The post “Iran slams US ‘discriminatory treatment’ over World Cup visa refusals for staff” first appeared on Vanguard News.