TEHRAN (Kashmir English): Iran has announced that it will boycott next week’s FIFA World Cup finals draw in Washington because the United States refused to grant visas to several members of the Iranian delegation.
The Iranian football federation announced on Friday, “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.”
On Tuesday, Iranian sports website Varzesh 3 had claimed the United States had declined to issue visas to several members of the delegation including the president of the federation Mehdi Taj.
On Thursday the federation president had denounced the decision as being a political one.
“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,” Taj added.
According to the sports website, four members of the delegation including Amir Ghalenoei, the coach, had been granted visas for the draw on December 5.
The Islamic country qualified for the sport’s quadrennial showpiece in March, guaranteeing them a fourth successive appearance and seventh in all.
1998 FIFA World Cup
Iran have yet to progress to the knockout stages but there was an immense joy when in the 1998 finals in France Iran beat the USA 2-1 in their group match.
The USA, however, avenged that by defeating Iran 1-0 in the 2022 edition.
The United States — co-host of the World Cup with Canada and Mexico — and Iran have been at loggerheads for over four decades.
Both countries had been holding high-level nuclear that had begun in April, during which Tehran and Washington were at odds over Iran’s right to enrich uranium which Tehran defends as “inalienable”.
However, the talks ended when in mid-June, Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, including strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites.
