Iranian football federation officials have been denied entry into Canada for a FIFA meeting just weeks before the start of the World Cup.
Iran’s football federation said its delegation had been subject to “the unacceptable behaviour of immigration officials” at Toronto Pearson Airport.
In a statement initially reported by Tehran’s Tasnim News Agency, the federation said the delegation, which included its president and a former member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mehdi Taj, turned back after arriving in Canada.
They had travelled to Toronto with official visas to attend the FIFA Congress, a meeting of all 211 member associations ahead of the tournament starting on 11 June, co-hosted by Canada, the US and Mexico.
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However, the federation said their treatment was an “insult to one of the most honourable organs of the Iranian nation’s armed forces”, and that the delegation “returned to Turkey on the first available flight”.
Canada’s foreign minister Anita Anand 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.
Immigration minister Lena Diab’s office said 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 said: “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.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision to grant entry “was profoundly troubling”.
“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.”
The situation comes amid uncertainty over Iran’s participation at the World Cup. The team is due to play group matches in the United States, with ongoing political and security concerns affecting preparations.
Iran are scheduled to face New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in the group stage beginning in June.
(SkySports)
