Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Monday that she has ‘no issue’ with her country hosting the FIFA World Cup team of Iran after its training base was relocated from the United States to Mexico for the summer soccer event.
The team will still compete in its group stage matches in the US, but its training base has been shifted to Tijuana, Mexico, located just south of San Diego, California.
This change was recently announced by Iran’s soccer federation and was officially confirmed by FIFA, the governing body of the sport, on Monday.
The relocation of the training base occurs amid the ongoing war in Iran, which the US and Israel initiated on February 28.
Sheinbaum mentioned at a news conference on Monday that a FIFA representative informed her the US was hesitant to allow the Iranian soccer team to spend time outside of the games on US soil.
“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum told the press.
She added that a FIFA representative then asked, “Can they stay overnight in Mexico?”
“And we responded, ‘Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that,” she said.
Earlier, FIFA approved Iran’s request to shift its national football team’s World Cup training camp from the United States to Mexico, amid ongoing concerns over travel and security arrangements.
According to Iranian Football Federation President Mehdi Taj, the team will now hold its pre-World Cup camp in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, located near the Pacific coast and close to the US border.
Read more: FIFA approves Iran’s World Cup camp move from US to Mexico
