The United States has refused to grant visas to 12 Iranian officials seeking to travel to the US for the World Cup, according to Iranian media.
Federation president Mehdi Taj, the team's logistics manager, representatives from the Foreign Ministry, security department officials and the team’s press officer were denied visas, the reports added.
In all, 12 applications were denied, the reports said. Non-Iranian media have reported that the players have received US visas.
The Iranian football federation said in a statement that the US government had continued its hostile measures against the Iranian national team amid the war between the two nations.
The federation believes it is a clearly political decision to deny visas to key members of the team's leadership and the move violates international rules, the state news agency IRNA quoted it as saying.
The federation said it would pursue the case through FIFA because the world governing body was obliged to guarantee visas for federation officials.
Those affected are set to accompany the national team to Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday and plan to reapply for US visas from Mexico.
All members of the Iranian squad have received visas to enter Mexico, which is co-hosting the June 11-July 19 tournament with the US and Canada. But all Iran's matches are in the US.
The war between Iran and the US began in February and there were doubts the Iranian team would make it to the US for the football festival.
The Iranian federation said in May it would relocate the team's training camp from the US state of Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico, south of San Diego.
The Iranian team is set to face New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15 and Belgium on June 21. Iran's third group stage match is due to be held on June 26 against Egypt in Seattle.
