By Ece Toksabay
ANTALYA, Turkey, May 19 (Reuters) - Iran’s national football team will travel from their training camp in Turkey to Ankara on Thursday for visa appointments ahead of the 2026 World Cup, a senior federation official said on Tuesday.
Iran are training in Antalya after the country's domestic league was suspended earlier this year following U.S. and Israeli strikes, leaving many players lacking match fitness.
The squad trained on Tuesday at a facility on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
Mehdi
Mohammad Nabi, first vice president of the Iranian football federation (FFIRI), said the entire squad would attend appointments at the Canadian embassy in Ankara, while some players would also apply for U.S. visas.
The World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Iran are due to play all three group-stage matches in the United States but would require access to Canada if they progress to the knockout rounds.
"FIFA regulations for the World Cup state that one of the obligations is to provide visas to all teams participating in the World Cup, and FIFA has said that the host country will provide the necessary cooperation with Iran's national team," Nabi said.
"The day after tomorrow we will be in Ankara and the players will go to the Canadian embassy for the preliminary stages of obtaining their visas."
He added that some players who had not already applied for U.S. visas at the U.S. consulate in Dubai before the war would also submit applications in Ankara on Thursday.
Nabi also said some foreign-based Iranian players would join the squad in Ankara before travelling with the team to the Antalya camp.
Iran qualified early for the expanded 48-team World Cup, but preparations have been overshadowed by uncertainty over travel and security arrangements following the conflict.
"NOT FULLY SATISFIED"
Coach Amir Ghalenoei said getting the squad physically ready for the tournament would be difficult after most domestic-based players went seven weeks without competitive football during the suspension of the Iranian league.
"Naturally, I am not fully satisfied with the players' level of readiness," Ghalenoei told the FFIRI magazine before the team's departure for Turkey.
"But with a training camp that is approximately two and a half to three weeks long, we can make up about 20 to 25% of this shortfall."
Iran will play Gambia in a friendly on May 29 before Ghalenoei names his final 26-man World Cup squad by FIFA's June 1 deadline.
The FFIRI also hope to schedule another friendly in Turkey and plan a behind-closed-doors match against Puerto Rico at their U.S. base in Arizona, provided they are able to enter the country without issues.
Nabi said the federation was confident security arrangements for the tournament would be handled appropriately.
"There are security committees working with FIFA inside the United States, and responsibility for security lies with those committees," he said.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler; Editing by Peter Rutherford, Toby Davis and Pritha Sarkar)
