2026 World Cup: Iran boycotts the World Cup draw
Tehran announced that none of its representatives will travel to Washington on December 5, denouncing an American “political” decision after several visas were denied to the Iranian delegation.
Iran announced on Friday that it would boycott the World Cup draw scheduled next week in Washington, after the United States refused to grant visas to several members of its delegation. The Iranian Football Federation denounced a decision “lacking any sporting justification”, saying that none of its representatives will take part in the December 5 event.
According to state television, several visa applications, including that of federation president Mehdi Taj, were rejected. The Iranian sports outlet Varzesh 3 had revealed the matter earlier in the week. Taj, highly critical, condemned a “political” decision and says he alerted FIFA president Gianni Infantino: “We told FIFA this was clearly a political stance and asked it to intervene to put an end to it”, he said. Despite these refusals, four members of the delegation, including coach Amir Ghalenoei, were allowed into the United States to attend the draw.
Having qualified since March, Iran will compete at the next World Cup — its fourth consecutive finals appearance and the seventh in its history. The team has never reached the round of 16, but remains marked by its historic 2-1 victory over the United States at the 1998 World Cup. This new episode comes amid an already tense diplomatic climate between Tehran and Washington. Talks launched in the spring over the nuclear file collapsed in mid-June, in a context of heightened violence following an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, which triggered a twelve-day military escalation that the United States briefly joined by carrying out targeted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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