While teams like Paraguay stunned Germany on the pitch, Iran and its supporters have been left feeling aggrieved for an entirely different reason at the FIFA World Cup. For them, the biggest controversy has centered not on results, but on the travel restrictions and logistical hurdles they say disrupted their tournament from the very beginning.

“What Mehdi Taremi, the captain, and the national team coach Amir Ghalenoei spoke about was the structural discrimination against Iran… the fact that they weren’t able to enter the United States as early as 24 hours before the game,” said journalist Nima Tavallaey Roodsari, expanding on concerns that Iranian players and officials had already raised publicly throughout the tournament.

Iran’s World Cup campaign never really looked settled from the moment the team arrived in North America. While other nations prepared at their host bases, Iran spent weeks dealing with travel changes and visa issues. The team was forced to relocate its training base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, before the tournament because of travel restrictions between the United States and Iran.

And the problems got worse once the games started. Journalist Nima Tavallaey Roodsari said authorities initially allowed the team to enter the United States only 24 hours before matches, something Iran had already complained about to FIFA. According to Reuters, U.S. authorities later eased those restrictions for Iran’s third group match, allowing the team to arrive two days before kickoff in Seattle, although they were still required to leave immediately after the match.

According to Roodsari, long immigration procedures meant some members of the delegation waited for hours before entering the country, leaving the team with very little time to recover or train before matches.

He also says that many team officials did not receive visas to travel with the team.

“I could go on and on, you know, the fact that there were analysts who weren’t there, the fact that the president of the FA wasn’t allowed in, the head of security, media members,” said the journalist.

Iran’s federation had already informed FIFA that several staff members were unable to travel and argued the restrictions created unequal preparation conditions compared to other participating teams.

And all of these problems became a major talking point as Iran’s campaign unfolded. The Iranian national team finished the group stage with just three points after drawing all three matches, leaving them dependent on other results to qualify. Ultimately, they missed out on the Round of 32 on goal difference.

After getting knocked out, captain Mehdi Taremi said, “It’s a disastrous World Cup. How is it possible we always have to travel to Tijuana?”

He also added that he loves the people of Mexico, calling Tijuana a second home and thanking locals for the support they showed the team throughout the tournament.

But then he said, “As professional players, in a professional competition, it’s not right… But football has to be apart (from) a politician.”

Coach Amir Ghalenoei also made his feelings about the whole World Cup very clear. “I urge FIFA: don’t let hosts treat players and teams the same way in future World Cups… It’s just the behavior shown toward us… I hope this kind of behavior does not become institutionalized in the World Cup.”

Before Iran’s final group-stage match, the federation also announced it would file a formal complaint with FIFA, arguing that the travel restrictions were inconsistent with the principle of providing equal conditions for every team at the tournament.

Iran’s players and coaching staff have repeatedly argued that the travel arrangements affected their preparation, although there is no independent evidence establishing that those logistical issues directly caused their elimination.

Tensions grew more after Mullin claimed that nearly half of Iran’s delegation had links to unwanted groups.

Iran’s federation denied it and called the claim unsupported without any evidence. That dispute stayed in the background as Iran focused on football. They were hoping that the game between Algeria and Austria would produce a result. But that result never came.

With only three points after three games, Iran finished ninth in the rankings and didn’t make it to the Round of 32.

The journey ended with players leaving a message that summed up how they viewed the tournament, saying, “Perhaps points can be won in many ways. Perhaps a team can advance from a group, but only through fairness and honour can one stand tall before history. Fair play is not a line in football’s rules; it is the soul of the game.”