TEHRAN -- Iran said Wednesday it would now send representatives to the World Cup finals draw in Washington in a complete reversal of an earlier decision to boycott the event over visa issues. “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 Football Federation spokesperson told state television. On Friday, the federation’s spokesperson said that they had informed FIFA about the Iranian delegation not participating in the ceremony as the United States refused to grant visa to several members of the delegation. Iranian sports website Varzesh 3 earlier reported that one of those who didn’t receive 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 said then. According to Varzesh 3, four members of the delegation including Ghalenoei had been granted visas for the draw on December 5. Iran qualified for the sport’s quadrennial showpiece in March, securing a fourth successive appearance at World Cup finals and a seventh in all. They have yet to progress to the knockout stages but there was unconfined joy when, at the 1998 finals in France, Iran beat the USA 2-1 in their group match. The USA avenged that by edging Iran 1-0 in the 2022 edition in Qatar. The United States -- which is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico -- and Iran have been at loggerheads for over four decades. They had, though, been holding high-level nuclear talks that had begun in April, during which the two sides were at odds over Iran’s right to enrich uranium -- which Tehran defends as “inalienable”. However, the negotiations ended when in mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
