Iran’s Mehdi Taremi celebrates after scoring the second purpose in Group A match in opposition to North Korea on June 10, 2025. — Reuters
TEHRAN: Iran on Wednesday mentioned it might now ship representatives to the World Cup finals attract Washington in a whole reversal of an earlier determination to boycott the occasion over visa points.
“Amir Ghalenoei, head coach of Iran’s national team, will participate in the World Cup draw ceremony as the technical representative of the national football team with one or two other people,” the Iranian Soccer Federation spokesperson instructed state tv.
On Friday, the federation’s spokesperson mentioned that they’d knowledgeable FIFA concerning the Iranian delegation not collaborating within the ceremony as the USA refused to grant visa to a number of members of the delegation.
Iranian sports activities web site Varzesh 3 earlier reported that a kind of who did not obtain the visa was Mehdi Taj, the president of the federation.
“We have told the head of FIFA mister (Gianni) Infantino, that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell them (the US) to desist from this behaviour,” Taj mentioned then.
Based on Varzesh 3, 4 members of the delegation together with Ghalenoei had been granted visas for the draw on December 5.
Iran certified for the game’s quadrennial showpiece in March, securing a fourth successive look at World Cup finals and a seventh in all.
They’ve but to progress to the knockout levels however there was unconfined pleasure when, on the 1998 finals in France, Iran beat the USA 2-1 of their group match.
The USA avenged that by edging Iran 1-0 within the 2022 version in Qatar.
The USA – which is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico – and Iran have been at loggerheads for over 4 many years.
They’d, although, been holding high-level nuclear talks that had begun in April, throughout which the 2 sides had been at odds over Iran’s proper to complement uranium – which Tehran defends as “inalienable”.
Nevertheless, the negotiations ended when in mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing marketing campaign in opposition to Iran, triggering a 12-day conflict that Washington briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear services.
