Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday that he “did a happy dance” when Iran was kicked out of the FIFA World Cup last week.
“I’m glad they’re done, and they’re not coming back,” said Mullin, whose agency oversees security in American sports. “I was so happy when we were able to get their visas and say they could leave American soil, and I might have sung a song or two, or maybe done a happy dance.”
The World Cup is no stranger to geopolitics, but Mullin’s unusual comments underscore just how politically fraught this tournament cycle has become.
Iran’s participation in the tournament was questionable since the United States and Israel started military attacks against Iran, FIFA President Gianni Infantino made a trip between Washington and Tehran trying to ensure that the United States will give visas to the citizens of the country it is fighting against and avoid the boycott that some feared would justify the biggest sporting event in the world. Eventually the Iranian training camp was moved from Tucson, Arizona to Mexico.
Mullin’s remarks came after he addressed federal employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Special Events Coordination Center, which coordinated security plans for the 48-team tournament.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Mullin strongly defended the administration’s decision to impose unprecedented travel restrictions on Iran’s national team, such as entering a day or two before a match and leaving immediately afterward. He claimed that US officials were committed to accommodate the force while protecting national security.
Mullin claimed Iranian officials tried to bring to the United States several people with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including employees who had never traveled with the national team before. He also said two people presented as members of the media had ties to IRGC intelligence and claimed another applicant was under an international warrant. Iran’s embassy in Mexico did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“They were playing games all the time,” Mullin said. “I’ve talked about them enough. They’re gone, they’re out of the tournament, we don’t deal with them anymore.”
He also dismissed himcriticism from Iranian officialswho had publicly complained that the restrictions on their national team were unfair and disrupted the team’s preparations.
“That was wrong. They – of course, you can’t believe anything Iran says,” he said.
According to Mullin, the administration had originally planned to register the team five days before its opening match, but Iran wanted to arrive earlier. Instead, FIFA worked with US and Mexican officials to set up a base camp in Tijuana, about 45 minutes from Los Angeles, where Iran played its opening matches in the US.
“We worked with Mexico, we talked to our colleagues there, and we talked to (Mexican) President (Claudia) Sheinbaum and it was agreed to allow them to come to Tijuana,” Mullin said. “They can stay there instead of coming to the United States early.”
Mullin claimed that the Trump administration provided accommodations unavailable to any other team: Customs and Border Protection officials processed the team’s biometrics in Tijuana before each flight so players could pass routine checks upon landing in the United States, and federal aviation officials accompanied the delegation to ensure travel safety.
“We didn’t do that to any other team,” he said.
Mullin also dismissed complaints that the team had to leave immediately after the game, comparing the arrangement to NFL teams regularly returning home after games.
“The game was over. Let them go back to the hotel, their base camp, where they are,” he said, noting that the US men’s national team also returned to its camp in Southern California after the match in Seattle.
Behind the scenes, Mullin said Iran presented the biggest security challenge of any delegation participating in the tournament.
“There wasn’t one team — not one team — we had to spend more time, by far, dealing with what Iran was trying to do,” he said.
