06/19/26 04:44:00
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06/19 16:27 CDT Iran says it's being treated unfairly. Its World Cup travel
schedule isn't unique
Iran says it's being treated unfairly. Its World Cup travel schedule isn't
unique
By The Associated Press
Iran's World Cup team says it's unfairly being made to travel to matches the
day before games and return immediately after, but that schedule itself isn't
uncommon among teams.
So how does it work, with 48 teams criss-crossing 16 cities across three
countries? Iran has been forced to comply with what White House FIFA task force
head Andrew Giuliani said were previously mandated rules stemming from the war,
but those restrictions also align with FIFA guidelines for general team travel.
Team Melli made the 127-mile (204-kilometer) charter flight from Tijuana
International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport the day before its
opening 2-2 draw against New Zealand on Monday, a typically short trip that
team captain Mehdi Taremi said instead took five hours, including security and
immigration checks.
Iran returned to Mexico right after the match, which ended about 8 p.m.
Pacific. The team had hoped to stave off travel for a day after the game.
The team's request to travel to LA two days before Sunday's match against
Belgium was also denied, the federation said late Thursday, adding that it will
lodge a complaint with FIFA. In a statement, the federation noted Sunday's
earlier kickoff --- noon Pacific --- and said it believes "such restrictions
are inconsistent with the principle of providing equal conditions for all
participating teams and may negatively affect teams' preparation processes."
"We are the only team that are participating in the World Cup that we are at
the host cities just 24 hours and it is not fair," Iran soccer
secretary-general Hedayat Mombeini said through a translator Friday. "All these
limitations on us, it has negative effects on our physical and mental things on
our players."
But the Iran team's travel schedule itself is not unusual for short distances
in this tournament. And FIFA's 2026 World Cup regulations state in Article 18.3
that "each team shall travel from its team base camp to the match venue one day
before matchday (MD?1) and in exceptional cases on MD?2, and shall return to
their team base camp after the match (on MD/MD+1)."
The restrictions on the Iran team have not been lifted despite an interim
agreement to end the war. Some team officials and support staff have been
unable to secure visas to the U.S., and player Mehdi Torabi had to visit the
U.S. consulate in Tijuana to get a new visa after the first match.
Many teams have been arriving in host cities the day before their matches. For
Friday's group-stage match against Australia, the U.S. made the roughly
980-mile (1,580-kilometer) flight from their base in Orange County, California,
to Seattle on Thursday. The team intended to return to its hotel in Laguna
Niguel after the match.
Some CONCACAF teams preferred to arrive on the day before games for World Cup
qualifiers at Mexico City, where sports performance experts advise players
won't have time to acclimatize to the altitude so should get there as close to
kickoff as possible.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has the longest group stage travel, at 5,878 miles (9,460
kilometers) in total. The Dragons had a roughly 1,660-mile (2,670-kilometer)
flight each way from Salt Lake City to Toronto, 590 miles (950 kilometers) to
Los Angeles and 690 miles (1,110 kilometers) to Seattle.
Bosnia's travel is far shorter than the 9,000-mile (14,484-kilometer) trek for
the U.S. at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the longest among the 32 nations. The
Americans went from their base camp in Sao Paulo to Natal, a distance of 1,436
miles (2,311 kilometers), three days before their opener against Ghana. They
made the 1,832-mile (2,948-kilometer) trip to Manaus two days before of their
game against Portugal and the 1,321-mile (2,126-kilometer) journey to Recife
two days in front of their match against Germany.
Four years ago in Qatar, all stadiums were within 31 miles (50 kilometers) of
downtown Qatar, enabling for teams to stay in one hotel throughout the
tournament.
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup
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