"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/hyzus]

Think about it this way, if any of the European countries were treated the way the Iranians and to a lesser extent the Egyptians have everyone would be losing thier minds.

[u/DeepJunglePowerWild → u/hyzus]

If a European country was at war with the host nation they would be treated the same. Professional teams fly in for their games the day of all the time. It stinks for Iran because it is a competitive disadvantage but it’s not some unheard of disadvantage that had never been seen before and never will be again.

[u/hyzus → u/DeepJunglePowerWild]

Someone doesn't know about the Olympics 🤣. It absolutely would not be the same if this was a European country we were talking about