In the Strait of Hormuz, US warships menace Iran’s oil tankers, while in Washington, President Donald Trump demands “complete victory.” But in Tucson, they’re getting ready to welcome the Iranian football team as if nothing were amiss.
The city, an oasis of civilisation in the Arizona desert, is set to be the base camp for “Team Melli” when the world’s biggest sporting spectacle opens in the US, Mexico and Canada next month.
“We’re just excited to host them here, and we’re going to give them a positive experience,” Sarah Hanna, director of the Kino Sports Complex, where the team will train, told AFP.
Grass is being watered and cut to FIFA-regulation height to ensure that players don’t get any surprises when they take to the field in Los Angeles and Seattle, the venues for their group-stage games.
Hotel rooms and meeting spaces are locked in, and security is tight.
“Right now, I’m probably averaging about 12 to 20 meetings regarding this training facility a week,” said Hanna. “From our concessionaire for food and beverage… to lots of grounds meetings with FIFA coming out to check.”
The flurry of activity in Tucson comes against the backdrop of a war between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other that is now in its 11th week. Despite a shaky ceasefire in place for a month, hostilities are stubbornly unresolved, with Iran having virtually shut the Strait of Hormuz.
Organisers FIFA have insisted the team will take part in the tournament as planned, so Tucson has pressed ahead with its preparations.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s 100 per cent on, and it’s never been off,” said Hanna. “Since they’ve been identified as the team, we’ve been moving forward as them as our team, until we hear something different from FIFA.”
Even near the local military base — whose aircraft regularly fly over the fields where the team will practice — Republican voters interviewed by AFP draw a clear distinction between sports and geopolitics.
“I’m glad that they’re coming,” said veteran Michael Holley, who thinks the war was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring 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 a voice of their own,” the 68-year-old said.
“He didn’t mean that the American people are a threat.”
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Chicago, Illinois, USA