The Iranian Football Federation has announced that they have moved their training camp ahead of the 2026 World Cup out of Tuscon, Arizona 300 miles south to Tijuana, Mexico instead.
Federation president Mehdi Taj made the announcement on Saturday morning that the Iranian men’s national soccer team would hold their training camp in Mexico after receiving approval from FIFA.
And just like that, the geopolitical plot thickens between Iran and the United States just weeks before the World Cup kicks off on June 11th.
The latest war in the Middle East began on February 28th of this year when the U.S. and Israel launched a massive military campaign and missile strikes against Iranian targets. As far as how that would affect Iran’s participation in the 2026 World Cup held in North America, it has raised several concerns among both sides.
Iran had originally planned to stage its pre-tournament training camp at Tuschon’s Kino Sports Complex, before heading to Los Angeles for their first two matches in group play.
But with tensions escalating between the U.S. and Iran amid the ongoing conflict, Taj initially threatened to boycott the World Cup, before requesting all of their group play matches be moved out of the U.S. and to Mexico.
U.S. President Donald Trump certainly didn’t help matters either, when he said in March that while Iran’s soccer team is welcome to still participate in the World Cup, he did not believe it was “appropriate” to do so “for their own life and safety.”
FIFA denied Iran’s request to have their matches moved to Mexico and confirmed they would not be withdrawing from the tournament. But with uncertainty surrounding visas, travel logistics and security risks, FIFA reportedly approved Iran’s request to move their training camp to Mexico out of Arizona.
“All team base camps for the countries participating in the World Cup must be approved by FIFA,” Taj said in the statement, adding that meetings in Istanbul and discussions with FIFA officials ultimately cleared the path for the relocation.
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Tijuana sits directly across from the border of Southern California and is roughly a two-to-three hour drive from Inglewood where Iran will open their World Cup campaign in Group G against New Zealand on June 15 before facing Belgium six days later.
Their final match of Group Play is against Egypt on June 26 in Seattle.
