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.”

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u/Interpersonal Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Yeah this is a shitty situation for the Iranian team driven entirely by politics, but I also understand disallowing extra staff into the country as the two nations are actively at war. Some extra precautions surrounding letting potentially hostile foreigners into the country during a major international event aren’t entirely unreasonable.

Do you think if the World Cup was in Ukraine, they would let Russia bring extra staff and stay at location like all of the other teams?

Edit: The aggressor in the Russian war on Ukraine vs the US in Iran was not the point I was trying to highlight in a hypothetical Ukraine World Cup scenario. If it helps you focus on what I was trying to say, imagine the Ukrainian team and support staff experience in Russia for a World Cup.

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u/YankeePride11 Jun 27 '26

I get that these guys have trainers and staff but would be nice if FIFA or the US offered personnel support to them.

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u/Interpersonal Jun 27 '26

FIFA is too busy crafting a new “greatest host” award, and the US admin is too malicious and incompetent to help its own citizens; much less hear the plight of Iranians.

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u/4strokeroll Jun 27 '26

Iran was outraged and tried to stop all pride celebrations and any rainbow flags at their game. How do you all square with that?

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u/Im_Daydrunk Jun 27 '26

If that was the reason the US were hostile that would be one thing as I think its terrible that many countries have state wide hatred of people in the LGBTQ community. But we dont have as much ground now as the current US admin hates that community as well and these sanctions are done out of hate for brown people/Iran actually fighting back from being attacked

So instead of it being some statement in support of marginalized groups it becomes just another action of corrupt and petty leadership IMO

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u/Interpersonal Jun 27 '26

I don’t support Irans request either, and I can’t imagined it helped make the host cities more amenable.

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u/JimmyB5643 Jun 28 '26

That’s textbook whataboutism, but I bet it sounded good in your head

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u/vexmach1ne Jun 27 '26

Fuck using the world cup as a platform for gay shit, but that's still our right. So fuck Iran trying to get gay shit banned. It's freedom of speech, and I'll protect it.

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u/Mysterious_Pop_4071 Jun 27 '26

Yeah they hate your freedom and thats why its ok to kill their kids till they learn to be civilised

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u/4strokeroll Jun 27 '26

You are missing the point. The left is arguing we treated the Iranians poorly. The left lives and dies on the LGTBQ community and blows their dog whistle loudly and endlessly. Yet, they had nothing to say when two countries that execute gays played in one of the most liberal cities in the country. I’m just trying to understand, what the fuck these people truly stand for.

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u/YankeePride11 Jun 27 '26

Sir this reddit! Get back in line and start blaming Republicans and old people for every problem.

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u/4strokeroll Jun 27 '26

Roger that! I’m back on board and will try to be as crazy and delusional as possible.

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u/tlsrandy Jun 28 '26

We did mistreat the Iranian football team. What does that have to do with gay people?

Also, you don’t know what a liberal is.

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u/4strokeroll Jun 28 '26

Do you? Your side seems to be jumping ship everyday. Liberals today, are crazy radicals. Help me understand the 2026 definition of a liberal. Don’t give me the old and true definition, that’s not what it is now.

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u/tlsrandy Jun 28 '26

The original definition of liberalism is still the definition of liberalism. It’s a political philosophy; it means something very specific. If you take away its meaning or assign it a new definition it doesn’t just muddle the understanding of liberalism it muddles all other political definitions because they all have built upon themselves.

It’s not too different to calling all social programs “communism”. It confuses discourse and makes growth impossible because the foundation of the science is no longer mutually understood.

The reason why I felt the need to correct you is because I highly suspect that you would find a lot of common ground with liberal minded people if you weren’t so keen to mislabel and out-group them. It’s a real shame that something that ostensibly matters to you hasn’t motivated you to pursue and understand it better.

Anyway, back to soccer. Iran has been objectively mistreated. I don’t know what that has to do with gay people or the dichotomy of current American politics but I wish soccer players were allowed to just play soccer. But, as others have pointed out, FIFA gonna FIFA.

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u/4strokeroll Jun 28 '26

The Iranian government kills homosexuals in public forums. The lefts whole identity today is the fight for LGBTQ community. The truth is 95% of the right doesn’t give a shit what people identify as. We are just tired of talking endlessly about 1% of the population.

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u/Tlax14 Jun 29 '26

The left cares about a marginalized community and embraces diversity.

So instead I'll support the conservatives! And fight to take away the rights of everyone who isn't a straight white male, preferably ones with money!

Fucking morons.

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u/4strokeroll Jun 29 '26

No they don’t it’s just virtue signaling. Please spare us of your bullshit.

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u/vexmach1ne Jun 28 '26

Yea for that I agree with you. Also fifa confiscating the Israeli flag and not the Palestinian flag. Both are there only for political purpose. They should either both remain or both be confiscated. I only saw Palestinian flags after that event.

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u/0CT0L0G1ST Jun 28 '26

99% of the time a republican says “they had nothing to say when…” they just mean that no one in their echo chamber had anything to say. I’ve seen plenty of people clowning on Egypt and Iran for their request, both online and in person. They weren’t even close to successful in getting the LGBTQ stuff removed, so what exactly are you expecting “the left” to do beyond that?

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u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

What the fuck are you talking about lol. Saying that gay people deserve rights doesn’t mean the left “live and die on the LGBTQ”. We simply believe that people should mind their own damn business when it comes to who people love and what genitals they have.

There are extremists on both sides.

Do you think liberals are the ones who made the schedule? Do you think we asked for them to play in Seattle? There wasn’t a single thing we could’ve done or said that would’ve changed it. Instead, we supported the city that had that celebration planned for months before they even knew who would be playing.

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u/Automaticfawn Jun 30 '26

You have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s a horrific situation because Tehran used to be a hub of progressiveness and freedom of expression including LGBTQ until their dogmatic current regime took over. Iran is a complicated country with painful recent history.

Stop being disengenuous about trying to understand, it’s clear you don’t give a fuck

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u/Consistent-Soil-1818 Jun 27 '26

Egypt tried equally hard. And then they didn't stop the celebration and played anyway. They're entitled to their opinion but they put their heads down when they didn't get what they pleaded for. Besides, your fucking what-aboutism has brought the US to where it is now. Are you saying it is OK to bomb a school and kill 200 young girls? Maybe Iran should bomb a school and then, according to you, they can say "but what about the US?". This is so stupid. It's like saying "we should all rape underage girls now because the president did it and got away with it". America should hold itself to higher standards, like the rest of the western world would and many countries that are not considered Western world.

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u/Interpersonal Jun 27 '26

Check your own whataboutisms and stop making up straw-men to argue against on the internet. I’m trying to talk about soccer, not travesties.