Iran's national football team says it was ordered to leave Los Angeles for its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, just minutes after drawing 2-2 with New Zealand in its 2026 World Cup opener, a claim that has prompted the squad's captain to publicly call on FIFA for help and its manager to declare Iran "the most oppressed" team in the tournament.
Captain Mehdi Taremi and manager Amir Ghalenoei both spoke after the match, describing what they called an abrupt, unexplained directive to fly back across the border rather than stay overnight in Los Angeles as originally planned. Neither identified who issued the instruction, and no official reason has been made public.
The episode unfolds against a volatile backdrop. The United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28. President Trump had urged Iran to withdraw from the World Cup altogether. Iran's anthem was booed by fans before kickoff. And a deal between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, involving a potential 60-day ceasefire, the dismantling of Iran's nuclear program, and the release of billions in frozen assets, was announced by Trump on Sunday, with formal terms still to be negotiated in Switzerland.
Taremi did not hold back after the match. SunSport reported the Iran captain's frustration in detail, capturing a player who felt his squad had been treated as an afterthought at a tournament with a record-breaking 48 nations.
"Everything is like a disaster actually for us... still we have some problems because we are supposed to be training tomorrow morning, recovery, then leave for Tijuana. But we have to leave Los Angeles right now, and it's not good for us. It's not good for the football, because in World Cup, you have to prepare good for the next game."
Taremi went further, describing the toll on the squad's morale and physical readiness.
"Because it is a lot of stress for the players and the staff and everyone. But we don't have that support and I think Fifa have to help us more than this."
When asked whether he had a message for President Trump, Taremi sidestepped. "I'm here to play football, my friend. We are tired to talk about [issues]," he said.
He also referenced FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who entered the Iran dressing room after the final whistle. "He just wants to help us. It's the beginning of the World Cup now, and he will help us," Taremi said. What exactly Infantino told the players behind closed doors remains unknown. FIFA has not issued a public statement responding to Taremi's request for support.
Manager Amir Ghalenoei backed up his captain's account and added his own pointed complaint about the team's treatment on American soil.
"We were supposed to stay tonight and return tomorrow lunchtime but I have no idea why and they haven't told [us]. Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup."
Ghalenoei described the request to return to Tijuana as "strange" and said the squad was "really troubled." The fact that neither the captain nor the manager could name the authority behind the order, whether it came from FIFA, tournament organizers, U.S. officials, or some other body, only deepens the questions surrounding the incident.
Iran's team has been based in Tijuana, just across the U.S.-Mexico border, rather than at a camp inside the United States. The arrangement itself raises logistical questions about why a World Cup participant is headquartered outside the host country. Iran still has at least two more group-stage matches: Belgium in Los Angeles on Sunday and Egypt in Seattle on June 27.
Iran's presence at this World Cup has been contentious from the start. Before the squad even took the pitch, there were suggestions that Iran could be replaced by Italy after Trump urged Iran to pull out. Iran refused, issuing a statement insisting "no one can remove us."
The geopolitical friction is real. The U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, and the conflict's shadow has followed Iran's players across the border and into the stadium. Fans booed Iran's national anthem before the New Zealand match. Taremi urged FIFA to give Iran's players more support amid what he described as animosity connected to the Middle Eastern conflict.
Iran is hardly the only team to encounter travel complications at this tournament. Uruguay's World Cup squad was denied U.S. entry over paperwork and landed in Florida just hours before its own opener, a reminder that border enforcement and documentation requirements are being applied broadly, not selectively.
Trump announced what was described as a major agreement with the Iranian regime on Sunday, involving the removal of blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. A 60-day ceasefire is expected to be negotiated in Switzerland on Friday. Negotiators will discuss terms centered on dismantling Iran's nuclear program and releasing billions in frozen Iranian assets. The framework remains undecided.
The diplomatic thaw, however tentative, has not translated into smoother logistics for Iran's squad on the ground. If anything, the team's Tijuana base camp and its rushed departure from Los Angeles suggest that the practical realities of hosting a regime adversary at a World Cup remain unresolved.
Several basic facts remain missing. Who told Iran to leave? Was it a security decision, a tournament logistics call, or something else? What specific venue in Los Angeles hosted the match? Did any U.S. government agency play a role in the travel directive?
The Trump administration has taken an aggressive posture on immigration and customs enforcement at points of entry, including drafting plans to halt customs processing at sanctuary city airports. Whether any of those enforcement priorities factored into Iran's travel arrangements is unclear, but the broader climate of tightened border controls is impossible to ignore.
Iran's next match, against Belgium in Los Angeles on Sunday, will presumably require another cross-border trip from Tijuana. Whether the team will face similar restrictions after that game is an open question.
Taremi struck a defiant note despite the frustration. "And if they help us, we are much appreciated about that... if no one helps us, it doesn't matter," he said. "We just stay back to back, behind each other and we try our best to win both the next games."
That resolve may be admirable on a personal level, but it does not answer the institutional questions. FIFA chose to host this World Cup across three countries. It invited 48 nations, including one whose government is in active conflict with the host nation. The obligation to ensure those teams can compete under reasonable conditions falls squarely on the tournament's organizers.
The broader enforcement environment adds context. Lawmakers have floated pulling customs officers from sanctuary city airports over DHS funding disputes, and cities like Seattle have paused police technology expansions over concerns about immigration enforcement, all signs that the intersection of federal policy and local governance remains deeply contested.
Iran's complaints deserve scrutiny, not automatic sympathy. This is a regime whose government has been engaged in a conflict with the United States and whose supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in strikes connected to that war. The Iranian regime is not a sympathetic actor on the world stage.
But the players on the pitch are not the regime. They are athletes competing under FIFA's banner, at a tournament FIFA organized, in a country FIFA selected as host. If FIFA cannot guarantee basic overnight accommodations and reasonable travel schedules for a participating team, regardless of the geopolitical tensions, then the governing body failed in its most elementary planning obligation.
Infantino walked into that dressing room after the match. Whatever he said, the result so far is a team bused to an airport minutes after a grueling draw, flown across the border to Mexico, and left to prepare for its next match under conditions its own captain calls a disaster.
When you invite 48 nations to a World Cup, you own the logistics for all 48, not just the ones whose governments are convenient.
