Iran’s World Cup football team leaves for Turkiye: media

TEHRAN: Iran’s national football team was headed to Turkiye on Monday to play a final friendly match and apply for visas to fly to the United States for the 2026 World Cup, Iranian media reported.
The team plan to participate in the tournament despite co-host Washington having launched a war against Iran with a massive wave of attacks alongside ally Israel on February 28.
The fighting has been on hold for weeks thanks to a ceasefire, but peace talks have failed to make a breakthrough and new drone attacks against Gulf countries at the weekend combined with threats from US President Donald Trump raising fears of a return to fighting.
The team “departed this morning for Antalya, Turkiye to play its final friendly match before flying to the United States for the 2026 World Cup,” the Tasnim news agency reported.
It said the squad consisted of 22 domestic-based players alongside their coaching staff.
On Saturday, head coach Amir Ghalenoei said they would also be completing visa applications for the US while in Turkiye.
’Let ‘em play’
Iran secured their spot at the World Cup in March 2025, but since then the United States has twice launched attacks on the country.
US officials have insisted that Iran is welcome at the tournament, while organizer FIFA has said it will go ahead as planned and rejected Iranian suggestions that their games be moved to co-hosts Mexico or Canada.
“I think let ‘em play,” Trump said in late April.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any problem would not be with Iranian players but “some of the other people (they) would want to bring with them,” suggesting they may have ties to the Revolutionary Guards, which Washington has branded a terrorist organization.
Last month, officials from Iran’s football