Italy’s repechage to World Cup, Trump’s right hand man: "They won’t get in"

We are now a little more than a week away from the start of the World Cup, which will take place between the United States, Mexico and Canada, but the situation around Iran’s national team is still not fully defined. The team is still waiting for visas from the U.S. government and has been forced to move its training camp location from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico.

During a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was crystal clear: “We have no problem with the athletes or their support staff but we will not allow in people who are not connected to the sports world and who may have ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or similar entities. They will not enter, we will monitor the situation very closely.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, during a sports program broadcast on state television, updated on the situation: “On Saturday we will leave for Spain and from there the national team will fly directly to Tijuana. We will get the Mexican visa on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, after which the U.S. visa should arrive quickly.”

Iran has been placed in Group G and will face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, and then play against Egypt in Seattle on June 26. According to Taj, the outbreak of war in the Middle East on Feb. 28, with the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, has “completely disrupted” the national team’s plans. “The situation in the country, and especially the ongoing conflict, blew all our plans out of the water,” he explained.