Body found in parking lot outside Iran's World Cup training base in Tijuana

A body has been found in a parking lot outside the stadium Iran’s national team is using as its World Cup training base in Tijuana, Mexico, casting an unsettling shadow over the squad’s preparations for Tuesday’s group-stage opener against New Zealand.

Mexican authorities discovered the corpse on Friday inside a bag in the trunk of a gray vehicle parked across from Estadio Caliente. Police opened the car after detecting a pungent smell emanating from it.

Iran’s squad has been using Tijuana as its base during the tournament due to visa delays and travel restrictions imposed on the team’s administrative staff and coaches. The players are set to travel to Los Angeles for their first match against New Zealand’s All Whites.

Tijuana sits on Mexico’s Pacific coast along the US border and ranks among the country’s ten most violent cities, according to the Citizens’ Council of Public Security, a Mexican think tank that publishes an annual ranking of murder rates. The city government recorded 1,219 homicides last year across a population of more than 2.3 million residents — a figure that nonetheless represented a 32 percent reduction from 2024.

The border region has long been a corridor for criminal groups involved in drug smuggling and has in recent years also hosted large numbers of migrants denied entry into the United States.