The United States will not ease the travel restrictions on the Iranian team for their World Cup matches in Los Angeles and Seattle despite the team saying they would lodge a complaint with FIFA, the cohost nation’s top tournament official has confirmed.The US will continue to assess the Iran squad’s travel arrangements, but for now the original plan remains in place, Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the tournament, told the Reuters news agency on Saturday.Iran are unhappy at restrictions that mean they can only travel to venues within 24 hours of their fixtures and must depart back to their training base in Tijuana, Mexico, directly after each game, with coach Amir Ghalenoei suggesting his side were “the most oppressed team in the whole World Cup”.The Iranian delegation left the US hours after the full-time whistle at their first World Cup match against New Zealand last week.The Group G match ended at about 8pm local time (03:00 GMT), and Iran returned to their base camp in Mexico within a few hours, prompting criticism of the US handling of their visas as the team did not get a day to recover at their hotel.Ghalenoei said the team had expected to spend the night in California to maximise the normal recovery process after their opening game.The US faced further pushback as Iran winger Mehdi Torabi’s entry visa expired after the first game. Team officials confirmed …
