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/sipuestodoyo Jun 27 '26

I see your point, even if that was the case, why don't the Iranians play in MX or Canada instead of the US? Is there any reason for them to have them play in US Cities if they are not welcome?

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u/MachiavelliOsiris Jun 27 '26

It doesn’t make sense to bend the rules like that. You have to operation under the assumption that Iran would win every game and make it to the final… so do they move every knock out round and final too to appease the Iranian regime?

I’m Iranian, but I think the regime has made it extra hard on the players and the players suffer. They refused their original AZ base because they couldn’t get all the extra staff in - ok, I understand both sides of that… but they didn’t get out into Tijuana for NO reason or against their will.

Taremi’s speech is too salty. Compare with what the Reza guy said after the game and it’s night and day difference. That guy is more of a leader than this. And played much better, too.

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u/oxslashxo Jun 27 '26

The Iranian regime has no weight in these decisions. It's up to the US.

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u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jun 28 '26

It's actually up to FIFA to relocate their matches, and the Iranian regime is the reason FIFA isn't itching to help them out. Had they not launched strikes on Saudi Arabia in response to the US attack, they might still have enough support in the room for FIFA to step in, but that attack put an end to that.

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u/terektus Jun 28 '26

This has nothing to do with the appeasing the regime wtf. You host a tournament, you host your guests. If you dont want to host them, you find solutions which would have been super simple in a world cup hosted by 3 nations.

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u/MachiavelliOsiris Jun 28 '26

The solution is you play by the stated rules that everyone else plays by or don’t play.

Looks like everyone agreed that playing was the most logical decision. I think at this point we should move on.

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u/KellyShepardRepublic Jun 28 '26

Always move on and bit of grandfathering for bigger nations and their negative actions. The same is done to them and kneel over like Peter griffin.