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After initially planning to spend the night in Los Angeles after the World Cup opened Monday, the Iranian men’s soccer team was ordered to leave the country as soon as possible.
Coach Amir Ghalenoei said he was ordered to leave the United States and return to his training base in Mexico just hours after opening his politically charged tournament by playing to a 2-2 draw against New Zealand on Monday night.
Ghalenoei did not say who ordered the Iranians to leave ahead of schedule. The team had expected to spend the night in California to maximize the normal recovery process after its opener, only to be told after the game that everyone needed to immediately get on a plane for the 140-mile trip back to Tijuana.
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The Iranian national football team poses before the 2026 FIFA World Cup Group G match against New Zealand at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on June 15, 2026. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu)
“They didn’t even give us time to recover,” Ghalenoei said through an interpreter. “After today’s game, they told us, ‘You have to leave immediately.’ It’s very important for us to have time to recover, (but) we’re being asked to get on a plane and go back to our camp in Tijuana, and that really bothers us.”
Iranian captain Mehdi Taremi said the team underwent five hours of travel and security checks during what is normally a very short trip from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday.
Members of the Iranian national soccer team arrive by bus at the Marriott Hotel in Tijuana, Mexico, after their 2026 FIFA World Cup Group G match against New Zealand, June 15, 2026. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu)
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“To be honest, we don’t know why they are sending us back,” Ghalenoei said. “I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us. The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere. We were supposed to come two nights before the game, and we were supposed to stay tonight to recover and come back tomorrow at noon. We don’t know why.
“I think our team is perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup.”
Taremi asked FIFA to offer him additional help.
“I think FIFA has to help us more than that. … In fact, for us everything is like a disaster,” he said.
The Iranians’ final two group stage matches are against Belgium in Inglewood on Sunday, followed by a trip to Seattle to face Egypt next week.
Iranian fans celebrate as their team faces New Zealand in the World Cup draw. (Photo by Liza Rosales/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
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As several hundred Iranian-Americans demonstrated outside against the government, many diaspora fans jeered and turned their backs to the field during the national anthem. Dozens of Lion and Sun emblems – the centerpiece of Iran’s official flag before 1979 – were displayed in the crowd despite FIFA’s attempts to keep them away, while dozens of other fans wore Lion and Sun emblems on T-shirts.
