Carney Says IRGC Members ‘Will Not Enter’ Canada After Iranian Soccer Official Denied Entry

Carney Says IRGC Members ‘Will Not Enter’ Canada After Iranian Soccer Official Denied Entry
Prime Minister Mark Carney responds to a question during an event in Ottawa on April 23, 2026. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
|Updated:

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada’s screening system is working to keep members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) out of the country, after an Iranian soccer official who had been granted a visa was stopped from entering this week.

The prime minister was asked by reporters on April 30 about Iranian Football Federation president Mehdi Taj, a former commander in the Iranian regime’s IRGC, who reportedly came close to entering Canada for the FIFA Congress in Vancouver but was turned away at Toronto Pearson International Airport.