Iran free of World Cup ‘hell’ in Sin City filled with playing dens and brothels
The Iranian national team has been consigned to a hotel in a city teeming with bars, gambling dens and legalised brothels – all of which are outlawed to Muslims
Head coach of Iran Amir Ghalenoei looks on during a training session(Image: Getty Images)
Iran’s football team finally has been freed from the World Cup’s Sin City by US security chiefs.
The Middle East nation had to switch its training camp from Tucson, Arizona, to sex, booze and drug-drenched Tijuana, just over the Mexican border, due to its recent war with America.
Players were only allowed out for training and to jet to the US for matches before being rushed straight from the showers to an aircraft that whisked them 127 miles south.
The team of devout Islamists complained it was the ‘most oppressed’ at the World Cup. It has been consigned to a hotel in a city teeming with bars, gambling dens and legalised brothels – all of which are outlawed to Muslims.
Nine members of Iran’s backroom staff were barred from entering the US at all after doing national service with the nation’s Islamic Republic Guard Corps – which is outlawed as a terror network in America and Canada.
The rest complained the quick turnaround did not allow them to properly prepare for matches and was hampering their chances at the tournament.
Now the US Department of Homeland Security has relented and given them extra time in America to prepare for their vital final group game.
They were allowed to travel to Seattle 48 hours before their last match against Egypt on Friday. That has given them an extra day beyond the 24-hour window they had been allowed for their first two games. But the team will still be required to return to its base camp in Tijuana straight after the match.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement: “For the Iranian team’s third match in Seattle on June 26 the team has been permitted to come into the US two days before the match.
“The Iran team will still be required to leave the day the match ends. The overall security measures and protocol are the same. We remain committed to providing the safest tournament possible for players, staff and fans alike.”
The change came after the Iranian Football Federation said it planned to lodge an official complaint with FIFA over what it described as unfair treatment in the US.
Head coach Amir Ghalenoei said the squad had been ‘robbed’ of preparation time and given ‘less than half’ the training window it needed while other teams had enjoyed normal conditions.
He said the team had faced ‘many challenges off the pitch’, ‘this kind of behaviour is not suitable for the World Cup’ and the restrictions were inconsistent with football’s values. “We are here for football, not politics,” he added.
Iran could top Group G with victory over Egypt after opening draws with Belgium and New Zealand. If it does the nation would face a third-placed team in Seattle once again on July 1.
A Daily Star investigation probed Tijuana’s seedy under belly. Prostitution is legal in the city’s notorious Zona Norte red light district packed with bars, clubs, brothels, sex shops and seedy massage parlours.
Around 30,000 of Tijuana’s 2.4million residents are sex workers. The city’s giant Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club is running its own version of the World Cup with pole dancers dressed in rival international team colours battling it out for customers.
An army of cash collectors scoop up dollar bills fans stuff inside pole dancers’ thongs. Others gyrate covered only in shaving foam. The city is packed with bars and Iran’s training ground features a giant advert for a casino outside.
