Mexico’s president sees ‘no issue’ with her country hosting Iran’s Fifa World Cup team

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that she has “no issue” with her country hosting Iran’s World Cup team after its training base was moved from the United States to Mexico for the summer soccer competition. The team will still play its group stage matches in the US but its base has been moved to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, a move that Iran’s football federation announced recently and that was formally confirmed by Fifa, the sport’s governing body, on Monday. Moving the training base comes against the backdrop of the war in Iran, which the US and Israel launched on February 28. Sheinbaum said at a news conference on Monday that she was told by a Fifa representative the US was reluctant to have the Iranian football team spend time outside the games on US territory. “The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum told reporters.

She said a Fifa representative had then asked if they can stay overnight in Mexico. “And we said yes, no problem. We have no issue with that,” Sheinbaum said. Iran’s football team is scheduled to play matches in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and against Belgium six days later, before facing Egypt on June 26 in Seattle. Before the war broke out, the team was originally planned to set up its base in Tucson, Arizona.

But with tensions simmering, Iran’s team moved its base to Tijuana in Mexico, Sheinbaum said, confirming an announcement by the Iranian federation over the weekend. The federation said the Iranians had received approval from Fifa, which made the move official on Monday when it released the lists of all 48 base camp sites. Teams use base camps to train before and after matches. This year’s World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 and will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.

The possibility of a move had simmered for months in the uncertainty surrounding the conflict in the Middle East and security concerns. US sanctions on Iran were likely to only make the team’s stay in the US more complex. The US State Department said in a statement on Monday that US President Donald Trump had made it clear the Iranian team was welcome to take part in the tournament. The department’s statement did not address where the team might stay, or Sheinbaum’s comments.

Sheinbaum said her government was working with Fifa to hash out all the details before the competition.