Belgium vs Iran live updates: World Cup 2026 game latest news and buildup

Over the past week, Iranian football officials have aired grievances about their treatment at this World Cup. They have said travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government — visa denials for staff members, for example, and a stipulation that they must fly in the day before matches rather than two days earlier — have left them at a competitive disadvantage compared with the other 47 teams.

Head coach Amir Ghalenoei reiterated some of those complaints at a news conference on Saturday evening.

He claimed his team had only been able to complete half a training session the day before Sunday’s match, seemingly because of their late arrival in the United States, although the details were not entirely clear.

“These constraints have made it very difficult for us,” Ghalenoei said via an interpreter.

The denial of visas to support staff, he later added, “undermines the ethics and the spirit of football”.

Hedayat Mombeyni, the secretary general of the Iranian football federation, went a step further on Friday. “I believe this will mark a dark point in the World Cup’s recent history,” he told reporters at Iran’s base camp in Tijuana.

Ghalenoei, though, also expressed appreciation for those who have helped smooth Iran’s World Cup journey in difficult circumstances. He said that “it appears” his team will be allowed to travel two days before their third group game, against Egypt in Seattle on Friday.

“I only wish they had allowed us to do the same for the first two games,” he said on the eve of this match against Belgium. That would have allowed Team Melli “to adjust, to be physically fit and in an optimal condition, and in peak condition,” he concluded. “Yet they robbed us of all these opportunities.”