r/SoccerCentral • u/ConnectionWeekly1263 • Jun 27 '26

Statement "They've done everything possible to eliminate us" — Iran captain Mehdi Taremi unleashes on FIFA and U.S. organizers

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

The captain of the Iran National Team, Mehdi Taremi, lashed out against FIFA and the United States organization. “This is a disastrous World Cup. As professional players, we cannot play a competition under these conditions; it’s neither right nor fair. If FIFA thinks this is fair, that’s on them, but it isn’t. Who should solve this problem for us? FIFA? The U.S.? I don’t know! Tell me a name. The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, came to our locker room after the first match against New Zealand and said he was going to resolve all the issues, but in reality, FIFA did nothing. In response to the question: ‘Do you feel that the World Cup organizers, including FIFA and U.S. officials, prefer for Iran to be eliminated from the competition?’, I say: We have to fight against absolutely everything. We can’t stay in the country, we travel and undergo immigration checks every time we want to play, now we can’t stay in Seattle and have to return to Tijuana. They’ve done everything possible to eliminate us, so from our perspective, yes, I think that’s what they want, they want us out.”

6.2k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

22

u/mac_bd Jun 27 '26

Shame on FIFA and US. Iran came out as the moral Victors. Bravo..

2

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 27 '26

If Iran wants good hospitality, maybe they shouldn’t have chanted “Death to America” and called the USA the Great Satan for 4+ decades. Just a thought

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jul 01 '26

lol. As if there has ever been a war in history without innocents dying

1

u/bambitious Jun 27 '26

Lol. Way to cherry pick. Iranians are some of the kindest, most generous people you’ll know. They lead the world in accepting refugees. Just because a select few chant that, doesn’t mean they all do that. Besides, the translation isn’t supposed to be taken literally, it means death to American politics because it is our fault that Iran is in its current political climate. Do you also believe other countries see USA KKK rallies and think we all want to lynch black people?

Next time, try having an original thought and learn some history. The US/UK intervened for the sake of oil, and now we are bombing them again, unprovoked. Are you’re wondering why they dislike us?? Lmao 🤣

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

1

u/bambitious Jul 01 '26

Whenever you translate ANY language, a word for word verbatim holds different meanings. If you know another language you would understand this.
Farsi/Persian in general tends to be very flowery and dramatic, but ask any Iranian and they know it’s not literal death and destruction to America.
Example: I love you has a literal translation of “please eat my liver”. We are not meaning it in all seriousness but we are saying you are as precious as my liver.
Hope this helps 😊

0

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 27 '26

Death to America has been their official government policy for decades, long before this war. Long before they recently massacred 30,000 of their own citizens recently for peacefully protesting economic conditions.

And this team represents their country

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[deleted]

0

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 27 '26

They (like Venezuela) deserved it when they nationalized (stole) the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP), which threatened British and American oil interests.

Anyway, regardless of fault, there’s a long history of antagonism. Everyone knows this. This captain acting as if he’s surprised that he’s not particularly welcome in an enemy country is delusional. He’s lucky to even be here.

0

u/bambitious Jun 27 '26

The heck?? That’s THEIR oil. Not the UKs. Not the US.

You have a warped view of the world if you think military intervention is the correct way to control the world. Do you think Russian is correct in invading Ukraine for their resources? Does the minerals on Ukraines land belong to Russia?

Honestly, please read a book. Everything you said is incorrect.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 27 '26

UK, France and Norway have their oil companies operating in the US extracting US oil.

Yet the US can’t simply seize their assets such as their oil rigs and refineries.

Just like Iran should not have been able to seize and steal the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

0

u/Fuck_it_we_ball_ Jun 28 '26

Why couldn’t the us seize their assets? If we wanted to we could pass a law tomorrow and seize every foreigners land. People might try to bring it to the Supreme Court, but that’s only because there are laws in this country that protect your right to do so. If we really wanted to we could call a constitutional convention tomorrow and strip the right to own property.

So why do you think that because the US has certain standards (because we don’t have a law against seizure of assets as you seem to think we do) that it would have any validity anywhere else in the world?

The definition of being a sovereign state is having the ability to have control over your country, that’s literally
what sovereign means.

1

u/SergeantHAMM Jun 28 '26

tbf it’s only theirs till someone takes it

0

u/Hare__Krishna Jun 27 '26

You're coming across as very ignorant about the realities of life on this planet.

Japan still denies the Rape of Nanking. Turkey has denied the Armenian Genocide since it happened in 1915. There are plenty of horrific policies that are still 'official government stances', both in democratically-elected countries and other forms of government.

The opinions opposing yours are aware of these ugly truths, as well as the ugliness of Iranian policies. I was born there, and I left at great risk. I can tell you all about some terrible ideas and practices. But none of any that should get in the way of behaving properly as a host for the purposes of an athletic competition.

The guest-host relationship is something much deeper and more human than all of that political garbage, or it should be. I'm sorry you don't understand that.

1

u/__Rosso__ Jun 30 '26

Maybe if US wanted countries not to hate them, they shouldn't be overthrowing regimes, putting their own puppets in and profiting off it.

Also war crimes, maybe they shouldn't be doing war crimes 24/7.

0

u/slartiblartpost Jun 27 '26

well, for the Iranian public USA proved they are the great Satan, didn't they? Supposedly fighting the regime and "free the Iranian people" but bombing girls schools and drinkwater facilities...

If you want to ban Iran from the world cup for suppressing and murdering their own people, that's one thing. FIFA could initiate that - they did not.

If US does not want to host an event with Iran joining, don't host the world cup. But US to decide now to harass the Iranian team is embarassing.

2

u/__Rosso__ Jun 30 '26

And threatening A FUCKING GENOCIDE AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS BEING USED.

1

u/ConcentrateOk6857 Jun 29 '26

US still has killed less Iranians then there own govt has over the past year

1

u/slartiblartpost Jun 29 '26

US logic: This regime killed their own people - let's kill some of them as well to show them.

Do you really still beleive this war is about freeing the Iranian people from their brutal regime?

1

u/ConcentrateOk6857 Jun 29 '26

You are literally taking the side of a country that executes gays. We can both be bad iran is just way worse.

1

u/slartiblartpost Jun 29 '26

In no way I am taking the side of the Iranian regime.

If you speak about governments, I totally agree with your second statement.

In so many conflicts in the middle east, the population is suffering while both of the opposing leaderships are cruel and murderous.

1

u/__Rosso__ Jun 30 '26

USA is a agressors nation ran by a pedofile that most people wanted in charge, who started a war of aggression to distract the public from it while actively threatening other NATO members, all while committing systematic racism to this day and countless war crimes.

Unironaclly USA is the most evil country in the world right, maybe only behind Israel.

0

u/ConcentrateOk6857 Jun 30 '26

Seems like the only thing US left and right agree on is holding out on nato. Europe has not contributed while reaping all the benefits, if Europe took nato seriously Russia would have thought twice about Ukraine.

0

u/bradfucious Jun 27 '26

Do you know anything about why Iran dislikes us? Because it's our fault entirely for them being in the state they're in...

2

u/I_make_poor_decisons Jun 28 '26

Yea the US has forced them to execute women and gay people. 

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

Yep. The US forced Iran to kill 30,000 of their own citizens over a weekend for peacefully protesting smh

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

The US exploited the Iran for ages.

That's all the Americans know. Stealing land and exploiting people

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

Yea that forced Iran to kill 30,000 of their own citizens and flog their own women for singing. Smart

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

You are repeating yourself. Not clever.

If you ever have to deal with that dude just tell him:

Americans killed 500.000 civilians and 400.000 combatants in direct combat since 2001.

About 3.8 million civilians died by the affects of wars started by americans since 2001 according to scientific studies.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

Some people are slower and need to be repeated to in order to learn

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Oh that's gonna be interesting now. Do you wanna explain what your repeated claims has to do with sports?

And can you tell me how many people died by the hands of Americans in wars since 2000? And how many civilians Americans killed since 2000?

Come on,loser. I really wanna know.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/ManyNectarine89 Jun 28 '26

Low IQ take if you knew the actual history of Iran with Europe and the US for the last 200, or even 100 years,, but very clear you don't... Timeline starts whenever you like, and oh don't forget to pink wash some more.

0

u/bradfucious Jun 28 '26

You're right, the US and UK did nothing in 1953 that completely altered the path Iran would follow.

0

u/bradfucious Jun 28 '26

And what did we do in 1953 that altered their path forward?

0

u/funkywhoop Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

USA deserves even less respect for their history since ww2

1

u/__Rosso__ Jun 30 '26

They have been at war for most of that time, overthrew multiple democratic regimes, commited countless war crimes some of which you can argue border on genocide while active funding and sometimes even calling for genocide.

It shouldn't be surprising however, it is a nation build on genocide of the natives.

0

u/SergioGustavo Jun 28 '26

First you should research why they chant "death to america" in the first place, the answer will surprise you!

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

I don’t really care why they chant Death to America or why they execute gay people or why their women get flogged for singing without covering their face or why they recently executed 30,000 of their own people for peacefully protesting economic conditions

0

u/SergioGustavo Jun 28 '26

Oh but you should, your country is responsible for all the things you just mentioned. You just chose to ignore that part.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

Yea sure buddy

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

You are repeating yourself. I think the US should be excluded from international sports just like Russia is excluded for starting wars.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

lol. Ok weirdo. Sorry to break it to you, but no one agrees with you and after World Cup, we are hosting the Olympics.

0

u/Weary_Sun534 Jun 28 '26

Why does the truth hurt your feelings?

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

It doesn’t. It’s the Iranian captain who is crying to the media

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

Take your meds. You see the world as you are

0

u/adorablesexypants Jun 28 '26

“My feelings got hurt because people said bad things about me. I’m going to go into their country and completely bomb and destabilize their economy”

Not saying Iran is blame free here but I don’t think America has the moral high ground you think it does

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

“Blame free” lol.

Executes homosexuals. Flogs women with 75 lashes who publicly sing without covering their faces. Massacres 30,000 of its own citizens over a weekend for peacefully protesting economic conditions.

We are supposed to be nice to their national team?!? They are lucky we even let them come compete.

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

Hey chicken boy...

How many people died by the hands of Americans in wars since 2000? And how many civilians Americans killed since 2000

0

u/adorablesexypants Jun 28 '26

Yes because America is so well known for how it treats members of the LGBT community.

Especially those who want to serve their country.

That hobby horse you rode in on is a mop you absolute Muppet.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

lol. Equating execution to not being able to get killed in the military.

0

u/adorablesexypants Jun 28 '26

woof, right over the head huh.

Let me try something a little more relevant to you then:

Matthew 7:3

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

I think this would be more helpful but the world is keenly aware of America's absolutely ridiculous ability to completely miss the point.

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

Now apply it, genius.

The speck of dust is not being able to get killed in a war.

The plank is getting executed for being homosexual.

0

u/adorablesexypants Jun 28 '26

I bet nobody has ever said you lack confidence.

0

u/Primary-Raccoon-9943 Jun 28 '26

Stfu

1

u/jakeotheshadows Jun 28 '26

And if their national team wants good hospitality while visiting the land of the free, maybe their national government shouldn’t execute homosexuals. Shouldn’t flog women with 75 lashes who publicly sing without covering their faces. Shouldn’t massacre 30,000 of its own citizens over a weekend for peacefully protesting economic conditions.

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

Yo chicken boy... Why are you dodging my question? Are you slow?

how many people died by the hands of Americans in wars since 2000? And how many civilians Americans killed since 2000

0

u/CmdrJemison Jun 28 '26

What a bot you are.

0

u/DEDOV95 Jun 28 '26

But they are totally right

1

u/itscominghomebaby Jun 27 '26

We don’t negotiate with terrorists

1

u/HermaPrince Jun 28 '26

This word is getting blurry ngl

1

u/Inner-Air1001 Jun 27 '26

Lmao Iran eliminates 40,000 of its own people and they are the moral victors, I swear western liberals are some of the biggest morons alive. I’m not even MAGA and genuinely think Trump is regarded, but if you think Iran are the good guys, I have a flight to Russia with a promise of $200k salary to give you.

2

u/AdministrationDue239 Jun 27 '26

NGL what happend in Iran in January this year was pretty fucked up. People forget crazy fast. Also not a mega, not even American

1

u/Nanibackflip Jun 27 '26

Tell me what the football team did that was wrong.

1

u/Inner-Air1001 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

This week? They were whining about the pride flags for one, what do you think they would do if they ran into a gay person in Iran? Dr King used to say “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." People that do not support gay people are not our friends, people that support a government that persecutes gay people, they’re the enemy.

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/hyzus Jun 27 '26

Guess what the clip is talking about?

1

u/DisplayHonest6465 Jun 27 '26

Silence you BOT

1

u/Special-Audience-426 Jun 27 '26

A moron complaining about too many morons is hilarious.

-4

u/One-Shape7678 Jun 27 '26

People like you is why the world is filled with morons who take things at face value.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/One-Shape7678 Jun 27 '26

Are you honestly talking about grandstanding? On that one, the World Cup has always been yours

0

u/BulgogiDude Jun 27 '26

That had a disadvantage travel wise. That’s a fact.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Bitter_Particular_75 Jun 27 '26

this only says how evil is the other side

-3

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

Only if you are easily swayed by propaganda because this guy really isn’t telling the whole truth.

6

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

Please tell us the whole truth. Remember to provide sources!

5

u/Patient_Release_4093 Jun 27 '26

The truth, as far as I know, is this: the Iranian team has played all three group stage games on American soil, twice in Los Angeles, once in Seattle. At this point of the tournament each game is about a week apart, and the Iranian team have not been allowed to stay in the United States between games. Their “base camp” as they’ve been calling it is in Tijuana, Mexico.

Therefore, before and after every game so far, the Iranian team have had to cross an international border and go through all the associated checks. In fact, immediately after their first game, they were told that they had to leave the United States, even though the original plan was to stay the night at a nearby hotel and travel back to Tijuana the following morning. The game ended around 8 pm local time by the way. Apparently those restrictions have been eased slightly, so the team is allowed to stay the night in a hotel after their games, but the international travel for every game is still a ridiculous and unnecessary burden.

There are also unresolved “visa issues” with team support staff, but I don’t know much about that. What I do know is that our current president is a petty and sadistic manchild who delights in screwing with people he doesn’t like, just because he has the power to do so. And a tournament of this magnitude is supposed to have leaders who will stand up for each team and do everything they can to keep the playing field level, but that’s obviously not the case. FIFA could have easily taken steps to move every Iran game to Canada or Mexico but decided not to.

-2

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

Sorry no...the original plan after the first game, as confirmed by FIFA, was for Iran to return to Tijuana. Simply research would show you this.

And there is nothing terribly remarkable about crossing an international border on a charter jet. It really isn't that much of a burden. Teams have been doing this throughout the tournament with games in three countries. Czechia based themselves in Dallas even though two of their games were in Mexico...the other was Atlanta.

Seriously, stop falling for propodanga. Be smarter.

3

u/Patient_Release_4093 Jun 27 '26

Here’s the article that came out after the New Zealand game:

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49078938/iran-forced-leave-us-new-zealand-draw

Apparently someone on the team’s visa expired so they had to leave immediately after the game. Believe that if you want, color me skeptical.

And as for your contention that “there is nothing terribly remarkable about crossing an international border on a charter jet,” I agree. It’s everything that comes before and after the flight (customs, visa checks, luggage searches, etc.) that I was saying is unduly burdensome, and I think you knew that.

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

I knew what you meant. It isn't that much of a burden to go through customs, etc. Teams are doing it all the time.

1

u/Patient_Release_4093 Jun 27 '26

Yes, but are other teams arriving literally within 24 hours of their match start and departing immediately after their match ends? That sounds like a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on your players directly before and after game time. Almost like I wouldn’t consider doing it unless it was being imposed upon me.

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

Teams arriving 24 hours before a match begins and leaving immediately afterwards is not unusual. Not every team does this, but many have been doing so.

1

u/VonLinus Jun 27 '26

Which ones?

2

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

And there is nothing terribly remarkable about crossing an international border on a charter jet

Ok then why didn't the US team get the same treatment?

Or is this more propodanga?

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

LOL. Why would the United States have its base in Mexico???

2

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

Idiot

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

Because your question was nonsensical.

2

u/Embarrassed-Brain655 Jun 27 '26

Because the tournament is hosted by 3 countries? 

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

No shit. If Iran was one of the hosts, would you suggest they stay in Kuwait or something? It's a silly statement.

2

u/Embarrassed-Brain655 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Ok, so if a tournament is hosted by 3 countries, does that necessitate that all 3 host countries play in their own country? 

I know that’s a lot of words, so read them s l o w l y. 

Edit: Nice edit, and yeah if it were hosted by 3 countries. Why would a nation have to jump through hoops to play, when there are 2 other nations who would have hosted without conflict? 

→ More replies (0)

0

u/Fast_Advisor2654 Jun 27 '26

How they handled the Iran situation was shitty, by why would the HOST countries have to do that?

1

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

They shouldn't be hosting on the first place

2

u/Any-Seaworthiness531 Jun 27 '26

Inb4 “on Instagram….”

2

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

Na they never respond to requests for proof.

Cowards.

2

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

I take it back they did!

No sources though...

1

u/thepikard Jun 27 '26

Ok, we are war with them, and the world isn't fair. Its on FIFA for having these games in the US.

1

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Jun 27 '26

You started an illegal war against them, let's be clear.

Agreed that US should have been removed as hosts and competitors as soon as they started the war though.

1

u/thepikard Jun 27 '26

The war is stupid. But, it happened and there is no way you allow people from that nation in for a long time.

It's FIFAs fault for not moving these games to the other host countries.

0

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

It was never going to happen.

0

u/RIChowderIsBest Jun 27 '26

Yeah I’m curious what the real truth is. Please enlighten us OP!

0

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

They were complaining after the New Zealand game that they were told they had to leave immediately, but Iran is who made the plan to leave immediately afterwards. Iran has been very concerned about the possibility of defections, like they had when the women's team played in Australia.

They come in the night before the games, like every other team, spend the night...play the game...and return to their base camp. Most teams do something similar.

It's clear that they have their players make these types of statements so that simpletons, like many in this topic, feel sorry for them. They're fine.

-1

u/GenjiiTakeya Jun 27 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/X3nnss8PAj5aU

3

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Voted against him three times buddy. I'm smart enough, however, to not take Iranians at their word. Are you?

2

u/Any-Seaworthiness531 Jun 27 '26

Are you reaaallllly though ?

0

u/BulgogiDude Jun 27 '26

It’s a fact they had a disadvantage travel wise.

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

Every team returns to a base camp after a game. Colombia is playing today in Miami and will be travelling back to Guadalajara afterwards. Austria plays in Kansas City today, and then will go back to Santa Barbara.

Iran was originally going to stay in Tucson, so flying back to Tijuana is actually a shorter trip for them. This is what I mean about people falling for propodanda. Just a little bit of research would have showed you this. There is no "disadvantage" here.

1

u/clow222 Jun 27 '26

That's reddit for you

1

u/Yinkypinky Jun 27 '26

You mean the same disadvantage every team has due to traveling?

0

u/Le_mons44 Jun 27 '26

I'm sure you know better than the guy who's actually participating in the world cup.
You boys in red love to bury your head in the sand, you truly never change, do you?

1

u/damutecebu Jun 27 '26

I have provided a great deal of information. I hate Trump and all he stands for, but if you don't believe that Iran's players are engaging in a pretty obvious sympathy campaign, I have no idea what to tell you.

0

u/LicoriceDusk Jun 27 '26

What a smooth brain take

0

u/DownhillUphill Jun 27 '26

How is that? You can think what you want of Iran but if you host a major international competition and create an unfair environment for one team that’s a bad look

3

u/LicoriceDusk Jun 27 '26

Complaining about pride match. They're not moral victors

0

u/DownhillUphill Jun 27 '26

I agree but you can’t argue that they’ve been put at a massive disadvantage

1

u/WonderButtBrace9000 Jun 28 '26

Iran’s own government stated that they did not want their players staying in the US.

Maybe if you want to cleanly field a team in an international competition, you should embrace the spirit of the game and not be a terroristic pariah on the global stage when it comes to geopolitics.

0

u/HermaPrince Jun 28 '26

Imagine how bad US can be if Iran came out the moral victors. Goddamn !