{"id":326701,"date":"2026-04-30T05:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=326701"},"modified":"2026-04-30T05:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T23:48:28","slug":"canada-denies-entry-to-iranian-football-boss-but-initially-was-granted-permit-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/canada-denies-entry-to-iranian-football-boss-but-initially-was-granted-permit-bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada denies entry to Iranian football boss, but initially was granted permit &#8211; BC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>A senior Iranian sports official with alleged ties to a listed terrorist organization was denied entry into Canada on Tuesday night, but there are questions as to why Mehdi Taj was allowed to get so far as he did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;s inadmissible, as per our own laws,\u201d said Negar Mojtahedi with Iran International.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo how is that even possible?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mojtahedi broke the story that Taj was on his method to the FIFA congress in Vancouver on Thursday, but was put back on a plane shortly after landing in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>While Taj is currently the top of Iran\u2019s soccer federation, he also has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n<p>That could be a branch of the Iranian military that Canada lists as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Nonetheless, Taj was granted a short lived resident permit to enter Canada.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup\" data-newsletter-inline=\"\">\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__image\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-inlineSignup__content\">\n<h2 class=\"c-inlineSignup__title\">Get breaking National news<\/h2>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox because it happens so you will not miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cA short lived resident permit now that permits the Canadian government to override their very own inadmissibility towards this individual, to offer him special permission to come back and in,\u201d Mojtahedi said, \u201cand so they are available in with this, , they arrive into the country through sports, and ultimately, they&#8217;ll spy on dissidents and collect information that they then send back to the Iranian government.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"l-article__part\" data-shortcode=\"tp_video\">\n<div class=\"c-video c-videoPlay \" data-iframe-receiver=\"\" data-autoplay=\"\" data-displayinline-featured=\"false\" data-displayinline-type=\"video\" data-displayinline-player-id=\"miniplayer_11823227_69f2981e47f2c\" data-displayinline-video-id=\"11823227\" data-displayinline-ratio=\"16:9\" data-displayinline=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/embed\/11823227\/#autoplay&#038;stickyiframe=miniplayer_11823227_69f2981e47f2c\" data-displayinline-sticky=\"true\" data-permutive-data='{\"content\":{\"name\":\"Federal funding announcement still leaves Toronto with FIFA budget questions\",\"type\":\"video\",\"sections\":[\"videos\",\"toronto\",\"politics\"],\"keywords\":[\"doug-ford\",\"fifa-world-cup\",\"mark-carney\",\"olivia-chow\",\"short-clip\",\"toronto-city-hall\",\"world-cup-security\",\"global-news-at-6-toronto\"],\"iab\":{\"categories\":[\"News\",\"News\/Politics\"],\"tags\":[\"Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh\",\"Anita Anand\",\"Association football\",\"Canada\",\"Conservative Party (UK)\",\"Esteghlal F.C.\",\"FIFA Congress\",\"FIFA World Cup\",\"FIFA World Cup Trophy\",\"Football in Iran\",\"Germany\",\"Government of Canada\",\"Government of Iran\",\"Hoffenheim\",\"Iran\",\"Iran International\",\"Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces\",\"Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\",\"Mehdi Taj\",\"Michelle Rempel Garner\",\"Milad Tower\",\"Qatar\",\"Revocation\",\"Tehran\",\"Toronto\",\"United States\",\"United States Secretary of State\",\"Vancouver\"]}}}'>\n<div class=\"c-video__inner \">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__placeholder\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Federal funding announcement still leaves Toronto with FIFA budget questions'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/media.globalnews.ca\/videostatic\/news\/ejb6ys4dkv-z10k7zn0bx\/FIFAFUNDINGBINGLEYstill.jpg?w=1040&#038;quality=70&#038;strip=all\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"\" sizes=\"auto, \" data-sizes=\"(min-width: 1040px) 1040px,(min-width: 720px) 720px,450px\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__overlay\"><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"c-video__duration\">2:28<\/time><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-video__title\">Federal funding announcement still leaves Toronto with FIFA budget questions<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada\u2019s position on Iran and the IRGC is obvious, but says the permit mustn&#8217;t have been issued.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-tabs\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab c-tabs__tab--active\" type=\"button\">More on Canada<\/button><br \/>\n\t\t\t<button role=\"tab\" class=\"c-tabs__tab\" type=\"button\">More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cMy understanding was there was a revocation last night of the permission\u2026 it was unintentional,\u201d She said.<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s Conservatives say this case illustrates a much larger problem.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-ad c-ad--bigbox l-article__ad\">\n<p>Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In accordance with Michelle Rempel Garner, there have been quite a few cases of IRGC members slipping through the cracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a fairly serious lack of screening and process to have the media doing security vetting on Iranian regime officials,\u201d Rempel said.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is prone to resurface for Canada through the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of State Marc Rubio indicated that there are not any concerns with Iranian players, but there are questions on people surrounding the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issue with Iran isn&#8217;t the athletes; it&#8217;s around among the people they&#8217;d wish to bring with them,\u201d Rubio told reporters on April 23.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncluding individuals with ties to the IRGC. We may not give you the option to allow them to in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\t&#038;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior Iranian sports official with alleged ties to a listed terrorist organization was denied entry into Canada on Tuesday night, but there are questions as to why Mehdi Taj was allowed to get so far as he did. \u201cHe&#8217;s inadmissible, as per our own laws,\u201d said Negar Mojtahedi with Iran International. \u201cSo how is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[832,6192,1131,10211,5479,19668,16526,21847,20511],"class_list":["post-326701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-boss","tag-canada","tag-denies","tag-entry","tag-football","tag-granted","tag-initially","tag-iranian","tag-permit"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326704,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326701\/revisions\/326704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}