Members of Iran's World Cup 2026 administrative staff have not been given visas to enter the United States, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
According to US officials, while Iranian footballers have been granted visas for the tournament, which begins on Thursday in Mexico, some support staff are reportedly not being allowed to join the squad.
via ReutersOn Friday, a White House official told Reuters that the players had received their visas, after Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said on Thursday that they had not.
Iran plays its first match on June 16 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, California. Its participation in the tournament has been the subject of much speculation after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February.
Negotiations between the US and Iran are continuing, but both sides have continued to fire on enemy targets.
Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that the Iranian staff not granted visas include Mehdi Kharati, the executive director; Hedayat Mombini, the secretary general of the football federation; and Mohsen Motamedkia, media director.
Staff members without visas will travel to Mexico with the team while efforts to obtain the documents continue, Tasnim said.
Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team's base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, due to the visa issues and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the US should be kept to a minimum.
The team is scheduled to land in Tijuana on Sunday. After facing New Zealand, Iran will play Belgium in Los Angeles and Egypt in Seattle.
The US has never formally said it did not want the Iran team to stay on its territory, Pasandideh said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US would not allow Iran to include in its delegation people linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Mehdi Taj, a former IRGC commander and now president of Iran's football federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December.
"Iran's participation in the World Cup - even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy - shows that Iran seeks peace," Pasandideh said through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.
Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 16:20Ferrari shot its load with the highly disappointing Luce EV...
Next up is American innovation, not Italian innovation: the Tesla Roadster.
🚨 Tesla Roadster vs. Ferrari Luce
Price - $250,000 vs. $640,000
Horsepower - 1,000+ vs. 1,035
0-60 MPH - 1.1s OR 1.9s vs. 2.4s
Top Speed - 250+ MPH vs. 194 MPH
Range - 620 miles vs. 280 miles https://t.co/uEgswwVLeD pic.twitter.com/XcP58ZRO6Z
On Saturday, Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen told the crowd at the Tesla Takeover Europe event that the Roadster is coming "in a few weeks."
🚨 Tesla Chief Designer Franz Von Holzhausen, speaking to the crowd at Tesla Takeover Europe, said at the event that the Roadster is coming “in a few weeks,”
Multiple attendees have confirmed this pic.twitter.com/B1v6yb2Geq
Absolutely perfect timing for the long-awaited EV supercar, considering the SpaceX IPO is next Friday and there are rumors that a SpaceX-Tesla merger could become a 2027 story.
BREAKING: ELON MUSK CONSIDERS MERGING $TSLA AND SPACEX AFTER IPO, per CNBC 👀
It’s happening ! pic.twitter.com/BD7g4zDd1Z
On Friday, Ferrari's CEO was quoted in an interview saying, "We will not make fully autonomous cars, loud and clear. We want people to have fun, not the [computer] chips. We want to have a steering wheel and a man or a woman behind the steering wheel. Otherwise, why do you buy a Ferrari?"
Ferarri CEO in new interview: 'We will not make fully autonomous cars - loud and clear. We want the people to have fun, not the [computer] chips. We want to have a steering wheel and a man or a woman behind the steering wheel. Otherwise, why do you buy a Ferrari?"…
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 5, 2026Perhaps the Ferrari CEO's negative sentiment toward fully autonomous cars stems from the belief that it simply can't build one that will compete with Tesla, which already has 10 billion miles of real-world driving data.
Ferrari has already launched hybrid models that have been shunned by its customer base (read report):
Yet did anyone tell the Ferrari CEO that AI driving mode can be switched off?
The Tesla Roadster is meant to be driven manually.
Just watch Franz show off its acceleration:
pic.twitter.com/5PjAuis1kl https://t.co/klwXeYlaOU
A Tesla Roadster that could outperform Ferrari's Luce EV at a fraction of the cost is pure American innovation.
Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2026 - 15:45