Iran will not be in attendance for the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington D.C. next week after members of its delegation were reportedly denied visas.
Per the Associated Press, the Iranian state news agency announced a boycott at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 5 over the U.S. government’s denial of the visas. Iran soccer federation spokesman Amir-Mahdi Alavi was reportedly quoted as saying the federation reached out to FIFA for assistance.
The visa denials come after months of speculation that President Donald Trump’s travel bans could interfere with some of the most high-profile sporting events in the world, including next year’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. In June, the Trump administration announced a full denial of entry for 12 countries, one of them Iran, and partial denial for another seven countries.
Haiti, another country on the full ban list, has also qualified for the World Cup.
The June ban, however, specifically includes a carveout for “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.”
That raises the question of whether the World Cup draw qualifies as part of the exception or if it only applies to the tournament itself, with the answer ultimately up to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
This matter has come up before, just in less notable events. A senior Little League team from Venezuela, one of the seven partially banned countries, was denied entry in July for a tournament and had to be replaced by a team from Mexico and a Cuban volleyball team was unable to participate in a tournament under similar circumstances.
Barring further boycott action, Iran is set to compete in its seventh World Cup and fourth straight after officially qualifying in March. The AP notes its federation president Mehdi Taj is one of the most senior officials in Asian soccer and a member of two FIFA committees that have oversight of the World Cup.
The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to kick off June 11, with matches hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
