Don’t mention the war: Tucson prepares to welcome Team Iran for World Cup
In the Strait of Hormuz, US warships threaten Iranian tankers, while in Washington, President Donald Trump demands “complete victory”. But in Tucson, we are preparing to welcome the Iranian football team as if nothing had happened.
The city, an oasis of civilization in the Arizona desert, is expected to serve as the base camp for “Team Melli” when the world’s greatest sporting spectacle opens in the United States, Mexico and Canada next month.
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“We are delighted to welcome them here and we will give them a positive experience,” Sarah Hanna, director of the Kino sports complex, where the team will train, told AFP.
The grass is watered and cut according to FIFA standards to ensure players will have no surprises when they step onto the pitches in Los Angeles and Seattle, where their group stage matches will take place.
Hotel rooms and meeting spaces are locked and security is increased.
“Right now, I probably average 12 to 20 meetings a week regarding this training center,” Hanna said.
“From our food and beverage concessionaire… to numerous on-field meetings with FIFA coming to check it out.”
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– Ceasefire –
The flurry of activity in Tucson comes against the backdrop of a war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other, now in its 11th week.
Despite a fragile ceasefire in force for a month, hostilities remain stubbornly unresolved, with Iran having all but closed the Strait of Hormuz.
FIFA organizers insisted that the team would participate in the tournament as scheduled, so Tucson continued its preparations.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s 100 percent on, and it’s never been off,” Hanna said.
“Since they were identified as the team, we progressed as a team, until we heard something different from FIFA.”
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Despite the official position, many uncertainties remain.
On Friday, the president of Iran’s football federation announced that the team would participate, but set out a list of requirements, including granting visas and processing staff.
Concerns are particularly acute for anyone with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the organization that currently appears to control the country but which the United States considers a terrorist group.
And in March, Trump questioned their presence, saying that while the team was “welcome” to participate, it might not be a good idea.
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“I really don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own lives and safety,” he wrote on social media.
Tucson residents reject implied threat.
“Our president is known for being a little bombastic in his use of social media,” said Jon Pearlman, president of FC Tucson.
“I don’t think President Trump or any part of our government will make it their business to make them feel unwanted or unsafe. I think it will have the opposite effect.”
– ‘With open arms’ –
At the Kino Sports Complex, Iranian players will have access to the club’s weight training facilities, ice baths and massage tables.
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“We welcome them with open arms,” Pearlman said.
“We are part of the global football community. We are part of what FIFA is trying to do, and we believe the game is something that brings nations together, not separates them.”
It is a feeling widely shared in this multicultural city of 540,000 inhabitants, with a Democratic tendency.
“I hope they still feel welcome here,” said Rob McLane, who plays indoor soccer.
“Even if we do what we do, which is ridiculous,” he said of the military operation.
Even near the local military base, whose planes regularly fly over the grounds where the team will train, Republican voters interviewed by AFP make a clear distinction between sport and geopolitics.
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“I’m glad they’re coming,” said veteran Michael Holley, who believes the war was necessary to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
Trump only brought up player safety because he feared “that Iranian athletes would be punished by their own government if they had their own voice,” the 68-year-old said.
“He didn’t mean that the American people pose a threat.”
But not everyone in Tucson is excited about the prospect of the Iranian team’s presence in town.
For some members of the city’s small Persian community, the players are little more than emissaries of a regime that launched a bloody crackdown on popular protests in January, killing thousands.
Ali Rezaei, a 68-year-old IT worker, said it would be “impossible” to support them.
“If there is a demonstration against them, I can go.”
RFO/HG/PNB
