Boss, you won't believe this! I sat down quietly at Fane's terrace with a beer to catch the news, and I stumbled upon a madness: Iran, gearing up for the 2026 World Cup, is in a visa crisis! Yeah, yeah, exactly them, playing in the USA, Mexico, and Canada, and they don't have multiple-entry visas. Federation President Mehdi Taj announced on Thursday that they're waiting for FIFA's help to sort it out. And so, I got down to business to tell you what I found out.
Listen up, Iran set up their base camp in Tijuana, Mexico – they scrapped the original plan with Tucson, Arizona, after getting FIFA's approval. So far, so good. But guess what? All three group matches are played on American soil: on June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, on June 21 against Belgium, and on June 26 against Egypt in Seattle. Without multiple-entry visas, the players can't cross the border between Mexico and the USA. I mean, hold on: you're doing your training camp in Mexico, but the matches are in America, and you don't have the papers to get in? Man, give me a break! Mioara scolds me for not checking the car documents, but these guys don't check their visas for the World Cup? No joke, what a sight!
And that's not all! Sardar Azmoun, the star striker with 57 goals for Iran, formerly at Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma, is uncertain due to a controversial photo. The guy appeared in a picture with the emir of Dubai, and the Iranian state media criticized him, and some accused him of "treason." Can you imagine? In Romania, if you take a picture with a sheikh, people might call you a "smart guy," but over there it's treason! He wrote on Instagram that he refused a very important financial offer from another country and considers himself "a son of Iran." On Monday, an Iranian vice president called for his return to the team, and the press speculates he could be included in the squad by the deadline. But President Taj, who's weirder than Uncle Gheorghe when he drills holes in the wall on Sunday, said he "is not aware of Sardar Azmoun's situation." Great, so nobody knows anything, as usual.
Now, what do we learn from this? Even the Iranians, with all their football tradition, get tangled up in paperwork and scandals with stars. To me, it seems football is the same everywhere: you have money, you have problems, you have visas, you have compromising photos. Just wait till Iran plays Belgium and they don't have visas, and the players are queuing at the embassy instead of warming up. That's life, bro! We Romanians are happy that at least we don't have visa issues – although, if you think about it, we also have queues for passports before the holidays. I'm going to call Fane to tell him not to bet on Iran anymore, because nobody knows if they'll even make the match!
