Iran’s journey points not so unusual

Iran’s World Cup group says it is unfairly being made to journey to matches the day earlier than video games and return instantly after, however that schedule itself is not unusual amongst groups.

So how does it work, with 48 groups criss-crossing 16 cities throughout three nations? Iran has been pressured to adjust to what White House FIFA job drive head Andrew Giuliani mentioned have been beforehand mandated guidelines stemming from the warfare, however these restrictions additionally align with FIFA tips for basic group journey.

Team Melli made the 127-mile constitution flight from Tijuana International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport the day earlier than its opening 2-2 draw towards New Zealand on Monday, a usually brief journey that group captain Mehdi Taremi mentioned as a substitute took 5 hours, together with safety and immigration checks.

Iran returned to Mexico proper after the match, which ended about 8 p.m. Pacific. The group had hoped to stave off journey for a day after the sport.

The group’s request to journey to LA two days earlier than Sunday’s match towards Belgium was additionally denied, the federation mentioned late Thursday, including that it’s going to lodge a criticism with FIFA. In an announcement, the federation famous Sunday’s earlier kickoff — midday Pacific — and mentioned it believes “such restrictions are inconsistent with the principle of providing equal conditions for all participating teams and may negatively affect teams’ preparation processes.”

“We are the only team that are participating in the World Cup that we are at the host cities just 24 hours and it is not fair,” Iran soccer secretary-general Hedayat Mombeini mentioned via a translator Friday. “All these limitations on us, it has negative effects on our physical and mental things on our players.”

But the Iran group’s journey schedule itself shouldn’t be uncommon for brief distances on this match. And FIFA’s 2026 World Cup rules state in Article 18.3 that “each team shall travel from its team base camp to the match venue one day before matchday (MD‑1) and in exceptional cases on MD‑2, and shall return to their team base camp after the match (on MD/MD+1).”

The restrictions on the Iran group haven’t been lifted regardless of an interim settlement to finish the warfare. Some group officers and assist employees have been unable to safe visas to the U.S., and participant Mehdi Torabi needed to go to the U.S. consulate in Tijuana to get a brand new visa after the primary match.

Many groups have been arriving in host cities the day earlier than their matches. For Friday’s group-stage match towards Australia, the U.S. made the roughly 980-mile flight from their base in Orange County, Calif., to Seattle on Thursday. The group supposed to return to its resort in Laguna Niguel after the match.

Some CONCACAF groups most well-liked to reach on the day earlier than video games for World Cup qualifiers at Mexico City, the place sports activities efficiency specialists advise gamers will not have time to acclimatize to the altitude so ought to get there as near kickoff as doable.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has the longest group stage journey, at 5,878 miles in complete. The Dragons had a roughly 1,660-mile flight every manner from Salt Lake City to Toronto, 590 miles to Los Angeles and 690 miles to Seattle.

Bosnia’s journey is way shorter than the 9,000-mile trek for the U.S. on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the longest among the many 32 nations. The Americans went from their base camp in Sao Paulo to Natal, a distance of 1,436 miles, three days earlier than their opener towards Ghana. They made the 1,832-mile journey to Manaus two days earlier than of their sport towards Portugal and the 1,321-mile journey to Recife two days in entrance of their match towards Germany.

Four years in the past in Qatar, all stadiums have been inside 31 miles of downtown Qatar, enabling for groups to remain in a single resort all through the match.