Mullin: Man Tied to IRGC Tried to Enter US With Iranian Soccer Team
22nd June 2026
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said a man with direct ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to enter the United States with the Iranian national soccer team during the World Cup.
“When we started doing the research on him, he had only been put in place since 2022, and we didn’t allow him to board the plane,” Mullin said in a TV interview Sunday. “The guy trying to get on the plane yesterday had direct ties to IRGC.”
The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) called Mullin’s allegation “an outright lie.”
“The claim that an official representative of the Iranian football federation attempted to board a flight to enter the United States yesterday and was prevented from doing so is an outright and undeniable lie. This claim is so unfounded that those who made it are well aware that such an incident never occurred in the first place,” FFIRI said.
“It is regrettable that a senior U.S. official has resorted to spreading false statements and misinformation in order to justify restrictions imposed on members of the Iranian national team delegation,” FFIRI added.