Iran to boycott World Cup draw after federation president refused visa

Martin Macdonald

• 29 Nov 2025 06:45 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Iran plan to boycott the 2026 World Cup draw next Friday after the president of their football federation was denied a visa to enter the United States.

The next edition of the World Cup will be the biggest ever as 48 teams are set to compete in the United States, Mexico and Canada next summer.

42 out of those 28 teams have already been confirmed, with six more set to qualify via playoffs set to take place in March.

One of those qualified nations is Iran, but they will not have any representatives at the draw after federation president Mehdi Taj and two other individuals were refused access to the US.

Taj believes that this decision is based on politics and not football. “We have told the head of FIFA, Mr [Gianni] Infantino, that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell them [the US] to desist from this behaviour,” he said.

In June, president Donald Trump issued a directive that restricts citizens of 19 specific countries from entering the United States.

These countries are Iran Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Exemptions to the ban were granted to athletes, coaches or “persons performing a necessary support role” who were travelling for the tournament or “other major sporting events."

“We have informed FIFA that the decisions taken are unrelated to sport and that the members of the Iranian delegation will not participate in the World Cup draw,” Iranian football federation (FFIRI) spokesperson Amir Mehdi Alavi told the Tehran Times publication.

There is increasing speculation that Iran could pull out of the tournament altogether.

Infantino previously said that "everyone will be welcome" in the USA for the World Cup, but extremely strict visa application processes means that won't be the case.

“We have excellent discussions with the US government. There is a White House task force chaired by President Trump, and all these topics are discussed there,” The FIFA president assured. “With all the relevant secretaries of state, there will be no issues with regard to visas, obviously for the participating teams and delegations, and we are working on something as well for fans. Hopefully, some good news will come out very soon.”

FIFA Pass

Infantino and Trump previously announced a new fast track 'FIFA PASS' system that will allow World Cup match ticket holders to be given priority visa appointments.

Visa appointment can take up to a year to be scheduled, but the new system puts ticket holders to the front of the line and appointments can now be gained in around two months.

However, fans will still be subject to the same scrutiny as other would-be travellers.

“Your ticket is not a visa. It doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You’re still going to go through the same vetting. We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”

Most of the tickets sold for the World Cup so far have gone to Mexicans, Canadians and Americans, but FIFA has confirmed that fans from 212 other countries have also purchased tickets.

Even if these fans have a valid match ticket, they are not guaranteed entry into the United States.