Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada Border Services Agency will be the department that decides whether Iran's men's soccer team is allowed into the country for a game next month.
Canada is set to host Iran in a friendly match in Vancouver on June 5, but controversy about the game has swirled and Trudeau said last week that the event was ill advised.
Speaking to media in Vancouver on Tuesday, the prime minister said his view has not changed.
Among critics of the game are families of passengers killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile on Jan. 8, 2020.
The Canadian government says 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman released a letter on Thursday, saying the federal government is ``making communities relive the grief and trauma'' of the crash by inviting Iran to play in Vancouver.
Both Lantsman and the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims have called for the game to be cancelled.