Iran’s national football team arrived in Mexico ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup wearing lapel pins commemorating the victims of a deadly strike on an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran.
The players were seen wearing gold-colored pins marked with the number “168” as they disembarked in Tijuana on Sunday. The number refers to the 168 people, most of them children, who were killed in a missile strike that hit the school on February 28, during the opening stages of the conflict in the Middle East.
Iran’s embassy in Hungary highlighted the gesture in a social media post on Monday, referencing the Minab tragedy. The team had previously paid tribute to the victims before a warm-up match in Antalya, Türkiye, in March, when players held pink and purple school backpacks during the national anthem.
The attack on the school, located near a base of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, has drawn condemnation from the international community, including the United Nations and human rights organizations. Neither the United States nor Israel has officially accepted responsibility for the strike. The U.S. military has launched an investigation and stated that it does not deliberately target civilians.
Iran is using Tijuana as its World Cup training base after changing plans to be based in the United States amid visa and political complications. The team is scheduled to play its group-stage matches in the U.S. during the tournament.
