Iran to miss 2026 W’Cup draw after US denies visas

Iran will not attend next week’s World Cup finals draw in Washington after the United States refused visas to several members of its delegation, the Iranian Football Federation said on Friday.

A federation spokesperson told state television, “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.”

Iranian sports site Varzesh 3 reported that the US denied visas to key officials, including federation president Mehdi Taj, who on Thursday described the move as politically motivated.

“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.

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