Italy’s repechage to the World Cup, comes the'latest U.S. trip: "They can’t decide for us"
The 2026 World Cup begins in less than two weeks and Iran can finally fly to North America, although not yet to the United States. As the Tehran Federation reports, ‘Team Melli’ has received visas to enter Mexico, where the base camp is based in Tijuana where the team will stay for the entire course of the rainbow event. However, those for the U.S., necessary to compete considering that all three matches will take place on U.S. soil, have not yet arrived.
Football Federation President Mehdi Taj to IRNA had this to say about the situation, “Both the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to Turkey and the Iranian foreign minister followed the request of the football federation and it was agreed that the visas for the members of the national team would be issued without fingerprints, which has happened.”
“Apart from two people accompanying the team, all other visas have been issued. There is no particular problem; for these two people they said an assessment is needed, but it will be completed within a few hours. The visas for the national team delegation for the trip to Mexico have been issued; this is a very positive result. If we did not have the base camp in Mexico, we would not have been able to reach the training venue, and problems would have been created. Since Iran’s base camp is in Mexico and not in the United States, the national team will be able to conduct their training there.”
Still the obstacle of the visa for the U.S. remains: “I myself spoke twice today with FIFA and the issue is taking its course. They told us to wait, that they are following the matter.” The U.S. government reportedly stated that the delegation will only be allowed to stay in the country for 48 hours per trip, but Taj was not concerned: “America cannot decide for us. We are guests of FIFA and we will talk to the international soccer federation about this. What is important for us is to negotiate with FIFA.”
“Our first game will be played in Los Angeles and the base camp is two hours and twenty minutes away. The most reasonable thing is to make this move by plane. If we go by plane, the trip will take 50 minutes. It is also the request of the national team coach and we are planning for this to happen.”
In this scenario, the question of repechage of Italy, the first national team excluded in the FIFA rankings among those not qualified and a potential beneficiary of an eventual Iranian forfeit under Article 6.7 of the FIFA regulations, remains in the background. Even Paolo Zampolli, special envoy of the Trump administration and main sponsor of the Azzurri cause, however, seems to have raised the white flag: “My dream and that of many was to have Italy with us. I had suggested to the president and to Gianni Infantino that, in case Iran did not come for whatever reason, Italy could be brought back. Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way.”
