Shervin Zainalzadeh

Obviously, with the World Cup being hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and with Iran's three games being here, this is a very unique occasion when the host country is at war with one of the competing teams.

Iran were issued their visas at the last minute.

However, some of the extended team and the extended administration staff still have not been given visas.

The Iranian team were due to have their training camp in Tucson, Arizona.

But because of restrictions that have been placed on the Iranian team not being able to stay overnight in the U.S., they've changed their training camp to Tijuana in Mexico, which means they now have to commute in and out of the U.S.

for the three group matches and leave the same day.

What they claim to be doing is not necessarily personally attacking the players, but they are using the extension of the squad as a voice that will be passed back to Tehran.

They cannot directly engage with the Iranian government in Tehran as they are here in the United States, and probably many of them can never go back to Iran.

It's fair to say deep down in the hearts of the Iranian diaspora, they want to see the team do well.

But their mind says, well, this is a team that represents a government or a system that they don't necessarily agree with.

So they are torn.

But many of these players, like anyone in the World Cup, these are professional footballers.

They're not necessarily involved in politics.

So it's a little bit unfair on them.

It could really set the precedent of what's to come by bringing together two adversaries in a football match.

And I think it will be another opportunity for the players to distinguish themselves as sports people, not politicians.

I predict they will stand hand in hand for a group photo and it will send a very, very powerful message to over 3 billion people in the world that will be probably watching the World Cup.