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The United States will not ease travel restrictions on the Iranian team for their World Cup games in Los Angeles and Seattle although the club says it will file a complaint with FIFAThe director of the competition of the cohost country has confirmed.
The US will continue to monitor the progress of the Iranian team, but for now the original plan is still in place, Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House Task Force on the game, told Reuters on Saturday.
Iran are not happy with the restrictions which mean they can only travel to the venue within 24 hours of preparation and have to return to their training center in Tijuana, Mexico, after each game, coach Amir Ghalenoei saying his side is “the most pressured team in the whole World Cup”.
The The Iranian delegation left the US hours after the usual whistle blowing in their first World Cup match against New Zealand last week.
The Group G match ended around 8pm local time (03:00 GMT), and Iran returned to their camp in Mexico just a few hours later, sparking criticism over the way the US handled their visas as the team did not get a date to return to their hotel.
Ghalenoei said the team is expected to spend the night in California to speed up recovery after their opening game.
The U.S. also ran into another problem when Iranian winger Mehdi Torabi’s entry visa expired after the first game. Team officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they will get him a new, multiple-entry visa to travel to the U.S. to play in the future.
“This matter has been resolved,” the US State Department said.
A similar travel plan will be in place for Iran’s match against Belgium on Sunday.
The Iranian team was due to arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday evening, about 24 hours before the start of their match.
‘Situation is dynamic’
Giuliani, however, says things are not going well and will discuss what will happen in Iran’s third game against Egypt in Seattle on Friday.
“The situation is strong,” Giuliani said in Houston. “We have a plan right now. Tomorrow afternoon (after the game against Belgium), he will take a 27-minute flight back to Tijuana.
“We’ll see how it goes in game two, and then there will be a discussion tomorrow about how it looks in game three in Seattle.”
Giuliani defended the move and said the move from Tucson to Tijuana had shortened travel time to Iran.
“Moving from Tucson to Tijuana, I think, was good for everyone involved. It certainly cuts down on their commute to Los Angeles,” he said.
Their flight is an hour shorter than it would be from Tucson.
“I’ll just say that all the players have received certificates. All the coaches have received certificates. There are some officials of the team who have not received certificates, and that’s because we’ve seen insulting things about them, and this is the part we’re talking about.”
Giuliani said the goal was always to protect US interests and foreign visitors to the World Cup.
“We want to make sure that we have this wonderful football tournament, where people are welcomed and enjoy the World Cup, and to make sure that we are not only protecting the American citizens, but we are also protecting the tourists from other countries who are coming here,” he said.
He revealed that nothing threatening the competition has been identified, but the authorities have been vigilant.
“What I can tell you is that our intelligence community has tripled on this since the beginning of this year,” he said. “We are discussing this every hour. But at the moment there are no confirmed threats.”
Giuliani has been enjoying the opening 10 days of the World Cup.
“Things are going according to plan,” he said. “It’s been fun to see the fun on the field, which seems to be a lot of conversation, which has been fun.”
