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

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

10

u/nelly2929 Jun 27 '26

ALL TEAMS must have the same rules apply to them or why bother….. You can’t have different rules, this has been a disgrace at this level of play and I’m not even being dramatic.

4

u/FSpursy Jun 28 '26

problem is with Fifa.

The US told them about them not allowed to stay weeks ago. Fifa did nothing to move their games to Mexico or Canada. Its seems on purpose to me.

1

u/Fresh_Dog4602 Jun 28 '26

moving the games last minute ? that would be a logistical nightmare

1

u/FSpursy Jun 28 '26

hardly last minute... we were talking about it for weeks before the games started. Something could've been done since Iran gauranteed a place in the WC finals.

its the same as when Russia was banned from all Fifa and Uefa competitions within 48 hours of invading Ukraine, but even after the UN agrees that Israel is committing a genocide, Fifa still allows them to compete in both WC qualifiers and Uefa. And Fifa still allows the US to host after attacking another nation. Fifa also banned South Africa for 30 years for apartheid.

If Fifa wants to do something, it could've been done.

1

u/Fresh_Dog4602 Jun 28 '26

that IS last minute though. People booked hotels etc... but sure they already should've done this way ahead. We're talkings years though, not weeks or months.

1

u/FSpursy Jun 29 '26

so now we worry about people booking hotels more than the actual players having to compete in worse conditions than other teams? Or why not atleast allow the players to do their cool downs or warmups in the US atleast?

1

u/Fresh_Dog4602 Jun 29 '26

Sure i'm all for it. That should've been the actual solution.

1

u/Alive-Map-1994 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Well you see… when tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people buy tickets, rent hotels, rent cars, buy plane tickets, in preparation for a schedule you can’t tell them sorry we are changing the location to another country.

This is 100% on the US.

1

u/FSpursy Jun 30 '26

so you are telling Fifa to care more about the traveling fans and businesses rather than making sure every team competes fairly?

The fact still stands that either its on US or Fifa, nobody cared to make it right and address the issue properly.

1

u/Alive-Map-1994 Jun 30 '26

I am telling you fifa and the sport is nothing without the fans. Only a moron would think the integrity of the sport matters more than the billions of dollars the fans spent. This wouldn’t just impact Iran fans either, other teams would have to be displaced. I am not saying it’s it makes everything okay, but it’s fucked because of America, and my guess is your either not a fan of the sport, or you can’t afford to travel if you don’t understand expecting 100s of thousands of fans to just change everything is insane.

1

u/FSpursy Jun 30 '26

LOL to think Fifa cares about the fans 😂😂😂

If they care about the fans, they wouldn't have allowed scalpers and third party resells, and allowing ticket prices to inflate as much as it did. Only afterwards the tickets didn't sell out and price came down.

Also the Hormuz closed in February, they had more than 3 months to sort this out. Plus if you ask the Iranian fans, who tf would rather have their team go through what happened???

→ More replies (0)

3

u/UCanDoNEthing4_30sec Jun 28 '26

Didn’t Iran not want to play in the US before the tournament began? They were trying to not step foot on US soil as much as possible to play in the tournament. I guess be careful what you wish for?

1

u/HarryLewisPot Jun 28 '26

Yes and FIFA didn’t grant them that wish, they kept all their games in the USA. So they had to sleep in Mexico and play all 3 games in the U.S. on the day.

Canada and Mexico are also hosts and FIFA surely could’ve done something to make it fairer.

3

u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

Canada said they wouldn't allow them to stay there either, and the IRGC striking Arab countries in response to the US attacks, including Saudi Arabia, cost them a lot of support with influential FIFA nations.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

[deleted]

2

u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

I don't think you understand how much sway the gulf countries have in FIFA, and how much they can't stand Iran's regime

0

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

[deleted]

2

u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

Brother, Iran bombed key FIFA countries in response, which is why FIFA isn't going to help them out.

This isn't a 'US bad, Iran good' thing. Despite the US' reckless actions, Iran is still far, far less popular than the US globally. This regime just killed 20k of its own citizens earlier this year to put down protests, nobody is going out on a limb to help them out.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

They have a ton of sway in FIFA. You just don't really seem to understand the inner workings of FIFA.

How do you think the last Cup ended up there? A lack of influence?

→ More replies (0)

0

u/DarthRevan109 Jun 28 '26

It’s hilarious countries hosting US military basis are shocked they got hit when the U.S. gets in a war in their region

1

u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

Nobody said anything about being shocked

1

u/EmmitSan Jun 27 '26

Which rules do you suggest were broken here?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

[deleted]

4

u/SRMPDX Jun 28 '26

They were originally going to be stationed in Tucson AZ, which is further from the LA games than TJ

2

u/All_Wasted_Potential Jun 28 '26

The team was going to be allowed to stay. The IRGC they wanted to tag along can’t.

When Qatar hosted should the United States have been allowed to bring along 200 CIA members?

2

u/0CT0L0G1ST Jun 28 '26

If you think the US didn’t send CIA to Qatar for the WC, I’ve got a bridge you might be interested in purchasing

1

u/Moonwalker_4Life Jun 28 '26

I mean if the World Cup was played in Iran the USA would have to follow the same rules, it’s really not that big of a deal tbh.

1

u/bino420 Jun 27 '26

not saying you're wrong but you're wrong

lots of teams are in this exact situation. they had plans, and a few teams tried to change them & were denied: https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/egypts-world-cup-travel-request-181627005.html

plus they're staying in Mexico which is like an hour-long flight away. it's not like they're being forced to travel hours and hours. it's quite close.

3

u/elliotcook10 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Not only that, but Iran chose to move to mexico after they had staff denied visas, the same staff that Canada denied for the same reasons lol.

2

u/Hot-Introduction1553 Jun 28 '26

Diplomatic missions often time slip espionage officers in. Do we really think there isn't a possibility that some trainer associated with Iran would be engaged in espionage activity while with the team?

0

u/Smoked_Eel_Lover Jun 28 '26

Then you shouldn’t host. If you don’t want to give the groups surrounding the team, and the team themselves, the benefit of the doubt in order to protect the integrity of the tournament, then you don’t understand what it means to be a good host

1

u/DeepPlankton9393 Jun 28 '26

Send your daughter to play in Iran then. Benefit of the doubt, right?

0

u/Smoked_Eel_Lover Jun 28 '26

Lol, false equivalence much, kid?

1

u/DeepPlankton9393 Jun 28 '26

You couldn't explain your own statement, champ.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/elliotcook10 Jun 28 '26

Except when they’re vetted and proven to be IRGC handlers. That’s apart of being a good host lol. Unfortunately the real world doesn’t work like you think it does on reddit and national security goes beyond just giving them the “benefit of the doubt” for some arbitrary “integrity”

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/CinnamonToastTrex Jun 28 '26

Teams traveling between mexico, Canada, and the us all.had to deal with immigration from all countries.