Iran will play its final World Cup warmup behind closed doors in Turkey on Thursday before departing for a tournament base in Mexico on Saturday, the Iranian FA (FFIRI) said on Wednesday.
Although it was one of the first teams to qualify, Iran’s participation in the World Cup has been in doubt since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on the Islamic Republic in late February.
The squad has played three friendlies in two training camps in Antalya since the start of the war — losing to Nigeria and beating Costa Rica and Gambia — and on Thursday will face Mali in the Turkish sea resort.
“Considering the importance of the Iranian national football team’s friendly match against Mali, and in line with the tactical objectives of Iran’s head coach, tomorrow’s match against Mali will be held behind closed doors and without media attendance,” FFIRI said in a statement.
The FFIRI persuaded FIFA to allow the team to swap its tournament base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, and from there it will commute across the border to its first two group games against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles.
Its third and final Group G game against Egypt is in Seattle.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington had “no problem” with the Iranian team entering the country but would not let officials or staff members with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accompany it.
“What we’re not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature, so we were going to watch that very closely,” Rubio said during a House of Representatives committee hearing.
Both the U.S. and Canada, who are co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico, classify the IRGC as a “terrorist entity.”
FFIRI President Mehdi Taj was refused entry into Canada for the FIFA Congress in late April because of his links to the elite military force.
Iran is scheduled to kick off its campaign against New Zealand on June 15.
