{"id":8666,"date":"2025-11-30T15:04:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/?p=8666"},"modified":"2025-11-30T15:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:05:17","slug":"iran-to-boycott-fifa-world-cup-draw-over-visa-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/?p=8666","title":{"rendered":"Iran to boycott FIFA World Cup draw over visa issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iran say they plan to boycott Friday’s 2026 World Cup draw in the United States because of the limited number of visas for their delegation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Tehran Times, the US has issued four visas to Iran’s delegation, but they do not include one for Mehdi Taj, the president of the country’s football federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taj said he had spoken to Fifa president Gianni Infantino about the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are evaluating our options, which will depend on timing and circumstances,” Taj said in an interview with Iranian television on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We remain in close communication with the Iranian foreign ministry and other authorities, and we will take the necessary decision at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The current position of the Iran Football Federation executive committee is that no one will attend the event unless all visas are issued.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draw is scheduled to take place in Washington DC on Friday, 5 December at 17:00 GMT (12:00 local time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC Sport has contacted Fifa for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran have qualified for their seventh World Cup finals and fourth in succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US, which is co-hosting the 2026 tournament along with Canada and Mexico, has long-standing strict visa restrictions on Iranians for political and security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order<\/a> banning nationals from 12 countries from entering America, citing an effort to manage security threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran is among the countries affected by the ban, although the executive order is supposed to exempt athletes and coaching staff travelling for the World Cup and 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It appears to us that the matter has become politicised,” said Taj. “We informed the Fifa president, Mr. Infantino, that they have taken a political stance and the situation is completely politicised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We believe that Fifa should take a stand against such behaviour.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran say they plan to boycott Friday’s 2026 World Cup draw in the United States because of the limited number of visas for their delegation. According to the Tehran Times,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-8666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8668,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8666\/revisions\/8668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranreport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}