Iran’s World Cup squad reaches Türkiye for camp while US entry papers stay unresolved

Iran’s senior men’s football team has crossed into a long-planned preparation phase in Türkiye while American entry visas for the 2026 World Cup delegation remained unsettled in open-source reporting through mid-May—leaving travel math that depends on third-country processing rather than a US mission in Tehran.

The Hindu, carrying an agency report, said the squad left for Türkiye on 18 May to base in the Antalya region for training and tune-up matches before any onward leg to the United States. That movement lands beside earlier federation statements—widely quoted internationally—that Washington had not yet stamped the papers the party needs to work and play on US soil.

Al Jazeera, in a 14 May sports brief, attributed direct language to Iranian football federation president Mehdi Taj: that no visas had been issued yet and that officials intended to meet FIFA to press for guarantees around the visa issue. The same piece sketched Iran’s tournament footprint—Group G fixtures slated in US cities—underscoring why clearance delays matter even while camp work continues abroad.

Türkiye Today’s English-language summary framed Antalya as the operational hub for “weeks” of camp activity and friendlies, explicitly tying the Turkish stop to visa and logistics realities when home-country consular services for the destination are unavailable.

What the public schedule adds

The Hindu’s dispatch noted a booked friendly against The Gambia on 29 May in Antalya—one concrete marker fans and broadcasters can use to separate training-rumor noise from a dated calendar item.

Yahoo Sports separately documented a large send-off gathering in Tehran before departure, a scene that illustrates political attention on the team even as bureaucratic clocks tick toward June.

How NewsTenet is reading the file

Three things can be true without contradiction: the team can train and play friendlies in Türkiye; US visa policy can remain a live variable for a large traveling party; and FIFA can be cast—by federation principals—as a broker when host-state entry rules intersect with a national-team program.

Until the US government or FIFA publishes primary confirmation of stamped passports or blanket assurances, the defensible headline is “camp underway abroad, US paperwork still publicly unresolved,” with Antalya as the visible staging ground and federation rhetoric keeping pressure on the sport’s governing body.