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The groups for the 2026 World Cup will be selected at random next week in Washington, D.C., but one of the participating countries has decided to boycott the draw.
Iran opted not to attend the event because the United States denied visas to members of its delegation, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Friday.
The agency quoted Iranian soccer federation spokesman Amir-Mahdi Alavi as saying that officials faced visa obstacles that go beyond sports considerations. Alavi said the federation had reached out to FIFA and hoped it could help resolve the issue.
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Iran’s players celebrate after the FIFA World Cup 2026 Asia zone qualifiers group A football match between Iran and Uzbekistan, on March 25, 2025 in Tehran. (AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump’s administration announced in June a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries, including Iran. The list also included Haiti, which last week qualified for the World Cup.
Exemptions, however, were promised 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.”
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
It is unclear whether the exemptions also apply to the World Cup draw, which takes place next Friday at the Kennedy Center.
The Iranian delegation would have been expected to be led by its soccer federation president Mehdi Taj, one of the most senior officials in Asian soccer and a member of two FIFA committees that have oversight of the World Cup.
He is one of the vice presidents of the Asian Football Confederation and a member of FIFA panels with responsibility for the ruling body’s competitions, plus men’s national team soccer in general.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino answers questions during a 2026 soccer World Cup news conference Thursday, June 16, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
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A record 48 teams will participate in the June 11-July 19 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Six of the teams will be determined next March.
The championship will take place at MetLife Stadium, the home of the New York Giants and Jets, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The first will be at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Games will also be played in the Boston area, but Trump has threatened to take games out of Foxoborough, Massachusetts if “there’s unsafe conditions.”
Trump made the suggestion while taking questions from the media during a meeting with Argentinian President Javier Milei at the White House, threatening to call FIFA President Gianni Infantino to have the games moved to cities that do cooperate, citing safety concerns.
“We can take them away. I love the people of Boston. And I know the games are sold out, but the mayor is not good. There are worse than her. At least she’s intelligent. You know, some are extremely low IQ. Those bother me more. She’s intelligent, but she’s radical left,” Trump said.
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump in the stands with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his wife Leena Al Ashqar during the final of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters via Imagn Images)
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“The answer is yes, if somebody’s doing a bad job, and if I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni, the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal, and I would say, ‘Let’s move it to another location,’ and he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it, very easily he’d do it. And this is the right time to do it.”
Boston is currently set to host seven matches when the World Cup comes to North America next summer. The slate includes five group-stage games, one Round of 32 fixture and the first quarterfinal on July 9.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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