Iran to boycott 2026 World Cup draw over US visa row

Iran is to boycott next week’s World Cup finals draw in Washington because the United States refused to grant visas to several members of the delegation, the Iranian football federation announced on Friday.

“We have informed FIFA that the decisions taken have nothing to do with sports and the members of the Iranian delegation will not participate in the World Cup draw,” the federation’s spokesperson told state television.

Iranian sports website Varzesh 3 had claimed on Tuesday the United States had declined to issue visas to several members of the delegation including the president of the federation Mehdi Taj. 

On Thursday Taj had denounced the decision as being a political one.

“We have told the head of FIFA mister (Gianni) Infantino, that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell them (US) to desist from this behaviour,” added Taj.

According to Varzesh 3, four members of the delegation including Amir Ghalenoei, the coach, had been granted visas for the draw on December 5.

Iran qualified for the sport’s quadrennial showpiece in March, guaranteeing them a fourth successive appearance and seventh in all.

They have yet to progress to the knockout stages but there was unconfined joy when in the 1998 finals in France Iran beat the USA 2-1 in their group match.

The USA avenged that by beating Iran 1-0 in the 2022 edition.

The United States — which is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico — and Iran have been at loggerheads for over four decades.

They had, though, been holding high-level nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington that had begun in April, during which the two sides were at odds over Iran’s right to enrich uranium — which Tehran defends as “inalienable”.

However, they ended when in mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that the United States briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.