Nine people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting near ​England’s World Cup base camp ‌in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, days before the tournament is due ​to kick off.

Kansas City ​police said there were no suspects ⁠in custody and that at ​least three of the shooting ​victims were transported to local hospitals.

The incident occurred roughly four miles from where England are set to train ​at Swope Soccer Village. England have ‌not ⁠arrived in Kansas City and are due to play a friendly against Costa Rica in ​Orlando, Florida, ​on Wednesday.

A ⁠spokesperson for the FA declined to comment.

Gun violence ​is common in the ​United States, where there were more than 400 mass shootings in 2025, ⁠according ​to the Gun ​Violence Archive.

-Reuters

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The Democratic Republic of Congo’s final World Cup warm-up fixture against Chile will take place behind closed doors ​in the French city of Orleans on Tuesday, ‌a team spokesperson has confirmed.

The fixture had originally been scheduled for Cadiz in Spain, but the city’s mayor cancelled it due ​to concerns over the Ebola virus outbreak, opens new tab in the central ​African country.

The squad are preparing for the global ⁠finals in the Spanish city of Marbella, having completed ​a 10-day training camp in Belgium, where they played ​to a 0-0 draw with Denmark on Wednesday.

United States officials told players and officials they needed to have been outside the DRC ​for 21 days and symptom-free before they would ​be allowed to enter the country to participate in the World Cup.

None ‌of ⁠the 26-player squad plies their trade in the DRC, as most play for clubs in Europe, while a handful of officials have travelled from the country to be ​in camp. All ​individuals are ⁠compliant, according to team officials.

After Spain, the Congolese team will travel to their World ​Cup base in Houston on Thursday. They ​open their ⁠Group K campaign against Portugal six days later, before facing Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 and Uzbekistan in ⁠Atlanta on June 27.

As of Saturday, the ​number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country had increased to 488, ​including 86 deaths.

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Iran’s national soccer team arrived in Tijuana early on Sunday ahead of three World Cup matches in the United States, amid tensions that have turned the world’s biggest sporting event into a soft-power contest between the warring countries.

The squad touched down shortly after five a.m. (1200 ​GMT) in the Mexican city, across the border from San Diego, after an overnight flight from Turkey, where they have been training for the ‌past three weeks.

As the team’s bus pulled away from Tijuana airport, it paused briefly so members of the federation could wave to about 20 fans holding Iranian flags. A cordon of military and police escorted the team from the airport to the Marriott hotel, which will serve as their base.

Soccer is virtually a religion in Iran, a national pastime beloved by people across the ​political spectrum. But for Iran’s team, the tournament has been marred by fraught politics at home, the war with the U.S., and tensions over whether ​they would actually be able to set foot on U.S. soil to play their games.

The moon rises over Tijuana as the Iranian national soccer team is set to establish its base camp for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the Mexican border city after Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to host the squad, following reports that the U.S. government did not want Iran to remain at its original base in Arizona during the tournament, in Tijuana, Mexico, May 30, 2026. REUTERS/Victor Medina.

Even their presence in Tijuana is politically ⁠tinged. The Iranian federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico, due to uncertainty over whether they would be ​granted visas and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the U.S. should be kept to a minimum, Iran’s ambassador in Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told Reuters.

Iran ​are scheduled to play their first two Group G games near Los Angeles, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, and then face Egypt in Seattle on June 26. Iran and the U.S. could meet in the round of 32 if both teams come second in their groups.

PRESSURE ON PLAYERS

This is the first World Cup since its inception in 1930 in ​which a host nation is set to receive a country it is at war with.

But the U.S. tensions are just one of several factors that have turned ​the World Cup into a political battleground for the Iranian team.

Widespread protests that erupted late last year, calling for an end to clerical rule, culminated in a sweeping crackdown that killed ‌more than ⁠2,000 people in the deadliest unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The U.S. and Israel then attacked Iran on February 28, sparking a months-long war that continues.

Iran’s soccer team were under pressure from all sides, said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.

“It has become a lose-lose for the players,” Milani said. “There are pressures on players not to play with the team, pressure to show comity with the people, and the athletes are just there to play soccer,” he said.

During the 2022 World ​Cup in Qatar, Iran’s team were both ​cheered and jeered after refusing to ⁠sing the national anthem, which was viewed as an act of solidarity with anti-government protesters back home. Since then, the pressures on the team had only increased, Milani said.

VISA DRAMA

After weeks of uncertainty, the U.S. awarded visas to all the players on Friday, ​just 10 days before their first match.

But several members of the Iranian squad were not given visas, including “key managerial ​and administrative members,” according ⁠to Iran’s football federation, which accused the U.S. of breaching its host obligations and violating FIFA regulations.

Pasandideh, the Iranian ambassador, said 15 of the 70 members of the party who arrived in Tijuana on Sunday had not been given visas to enter the U.S.

FIFA did not respond to a request for comment about the dispute.

An official with the ⁠U.S. State Department ​told Reuters on Friday that the administration had issued “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in ​the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff.” The official added: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the U.S. under false pretenses.”

Mexico’s willingness to host ​the Iran squad was a “gesture of cooperation,” said Tonatiuh Guillen, who ran Mexico’s national immigration agency between 2018 and 2019.

-Reuters

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