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, November 28, 2025.

“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 that the US had declined to issue visas to several members of the delegation, including the president of the federation, Mehdi Taj.

On Thursday, November 27, 2025, Taj had denounced the decision as being a political one.

“We have told the head of FIFA, [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 US avenged that by beating Iran 1-0 in the 2022 edition.

The US – which is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico – and Iran have been at loggerheads for more than 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 US briefly joined, with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.

The United States, Mexico, and Canada will host the 2026 World Cup, but US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation banning travel to the US from nationals of 12 countries, including Iran. The ban contains an exemption that applies to players, staff, or associated families with teams at the World Cup.

It refers to “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State” can still travel to the US.”