Iranian football federation officials have been denied access into Canada for a FIFA meeting just weeks before the start of the World Cup.
In a statement initially reported by Tehran’s Tasnim News Agency, the federation said the delegation, which included its president and former member of Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mehdi Taj, turned back at Toronto Pearson Airport after being subject to what it called “the unacceptable behaviour of immigration officials”.
They had been travelling to Toronto with official visas to attend the FIFA Congress, a meeting of all 211 member associations ahead of this summer’s tournament.
It begins on 11 June and is being co-hosted by Canada, the US and Mexico.
However, the federation claims their treatment was an “insult to one of the most honourable organs of the Iranian nation’s armed forces”, and the delegation “returned to Turkey on the first available flight”.
Denial of entry was ‘unintentional’
Anita Anand, Canada’s foreign minister, later said it was her “understanding” that the officials had been denied entry, but that it had been “unintentional”.
“It’s not my personal lead, but my understanding is that there is a revocation of the permission. It was unintentional, but I’ll leave it to the minister to indicate,” Ms Anand said, in an apparent reference to immigration minister Lena Diab.
Ms Diab’s press secretary, Taous Ait, said while individual cases could not be commented on, members of the IRGC – listed as a terrorist organisation in Canada since 2024 – are “inadmissible to Canada and have no place in our country”.
“We have taken strong action to hold the IRGC to account and will continue to do so, while protecting the safety of Canadians and upholding the integrity of our immigration system,” Ms Ait added.
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a Canadian non-governmental organisation, said in a statement: “The Canadian government had granted Taj special permission to enter Canada for a FIFA event.
“He would otherwise have been inadmissible due to his affiliation with the IRGC, which Canada formally recognised as a terrorist entity.”
Last week, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said the decision to grant Mr Taj entry in the first place “was profoundly troubling”.
Mr Rubio added: “It undermines Canada’s designation of the IRGC as a terrorist entity and contradicts our country’s commitment to combatting impunity for serious human rights abuses in Iran.”
Ongoing uncertainty
It comes amid continued uncertainty over whether Iran, who are due to play their group stage matches in the US, will participate in the 48-team competition with the conflict in the Middle East ongoing.
In March, Iran’s sport minister said “under no circumstances” could the country take part, while Donald Trump insisted the team was “welcome” but their attendance was not appropriate “for their own life and safety”.
A request by Iran to move their games to Mexico was then rejected by FIFA, with US special envoy Paolo Zampolli telling the Financial Times that he had asked Mr Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino to replace Iran with Italy – who have failed to qualify.
Mr Infantino has previously claimed Iran would “for sure” take part and an Iranian government spokesperson has confirmed the “full readiness” of the team.
Iran are scheduled to begin their World Cup campaign against New Zealand on 16 June (UK time) in Inglewood, California, before matches against Belgium at the same venue, and Egypt in Seattle
