Iran will stage its last World Cup warm-up match in Turkey behind closed doors on Tuesday, before the squad flies to their tournament base in Mexico on Saturday, the Iranian FA (FFIRI) has confirmed.<\/p>\n
Even though the country was among the earliest qualifiers, Iran\u2019s presence at the World Cup has been uncertain since the United States and Israel launched air strikes on the Islamic Republic in late February.<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak of the war, the squad has played three friendlies across two training camps in Antalya. They lost to Nigeria but later defeated Costa Rica and Gambia, and they will now meet Mali in today\u2019s match in the Turkish seaside resort.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the significance of the friendly between the Iranian national team and Mali, and in line with the tactical aims of the head coach, the encounter with Mali tomorrow will be conducted behind closed doors and without media participation,\u201d FFIRI said in a statement.<\/p>\n
FFIRI also secured FIFA approval to relocate Iran\u2019s tournament base. The team will move from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, and from there travel back and forth across the border for their opening two Group G fixtures against New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s third and final Group G match, against Egypt, is scheduled for Seattle.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington has \u201cno problem\u201d with the Iranian team entering the United States, but that it will not permit any officials or staff members with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to accompany the party.<\/p>\n
Rubio said during a House of Representatives committee hearing: \u201cWhat we\u2019re not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature, so we were going to watch that very closely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the United States and Canada\u2014co-hosts of the World Cup alongside Mexico\u2014treat the IRGC as a \u201cterrorist entity.\u201d<\/p>\n
FFIRI president Mehdi Taj was turned away at the Canadian border for the FIFA Congress in late April due to his connections with the powerful military organisation.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s World Cup campaign begins with their match against New Zealand on June 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran will stage its last World Cup warm-up match in Turkey behind closed doors on Tuesday, before the squad flies to their tournament base in Mexico on Saturday, the Iranian FA (FFIRI) has confirmed. Even though the country was among the earliest qualifiers, Iran\u2019s presence at the World Cup has been uncertain since the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Iran World Cup Warm-Up in Turkey Behind Closed Doors","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Iran\u2019s final World Cup warm-up in Turkey will be held behind closed doors as the squad prepares to fly to Mexico for the tournamen","mma_seo_breadcrumb_text":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_url":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_hide_ui":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_labels":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n