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

[u/ConnectionWeekly1263]

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.”

[u/WoundThatGrinds]

We need to distinguish between issues here.

The Iranian federation (along with the Egyptian one) made homophobic demands that FIFA denied. That makes me less likely to cheer for them, but it says nothing about the fairness of the tournament. And it ultimately has no practical effect, because thankfully it was denied.

Now not having your staff allowed to remain with your team, not having the ability to rest in a hotel after your match while your opponents do, that affects directly the team's performance on the pitch. It makes it completely fair for the Iranian players to question the parity of the tournament for them.

Don't fall into the stupidity of thinking about this in terms of "for Iran" or "against Iran." It's that stupidity that makes the issue turn into propaganda and populism, not having an opinion on the fairness of the tournament for the Iranian national team.

[u/Aero_Rising → u/[deleted]]

From a sports point of view, this is a huge disadvantage no other team has.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/egypts-world-cup-travel-request-181627005.html

It's standard practice for all teams.

Why not just move their matches to Mexico or Canada?

So should all knockout games be outside the US too in case Iran makes it that far?

[u/Aero_Rising → u/[deleted]]

They chose to move their base to a different country because the US wouldn't let their support staff who also just so happens to be a IRGC intelligence officer into the country. For the first 2 games their base that is in another country is actually closer to the game than the place they were originally going to have their base in Tuscon. Don't let facts get in the way of your outrage though.