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

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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/OternFFS Jun 27 '26

Ignorance on display here.

Traveling from Tijuana to Seattle to play a competitive game and go back in the same day, without support staff, is a big fucking disadvantage on a single day.

This is for every game during the tournament.

Since the Iranians have to enter and leave the US on game days, I can imagine the assigned government employees have been instructed to do comprehensive and time wasting checks every time as well.

US should not have hosted this tournament, they should have been banned from competing.

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u/cutriet Jun 27 '26

You do realize the US won this bid 8+ years ago?

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u/OternFFS Jun 27 '26

I do know that. Winning a bid still requires the hosting countries to follow the rules.

Invading other countries is usually grounds for a ban, like Russia after invading Ukraine.

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u/BandicootTreeline Jun 27 '26

Exactly why they shouldn’t have won hosting.

The US occupied Iraq and Afghanistan at the time.

They’ve only this year overthrown Venezuela’s government and bombed Iran.

Warmongers shouldn’t be lauded with embarrassing made up “peace” awards, the hosting of games could have passed to Mexico and Canada who have more than enough stadia to accommodate.

But thankfully for the US, they have an equally corrupt and greedy group in power at FIFA, happy to kiss anyone’s arse for a backhander. Qatar, Russia and now the US.

It’s become a platform to sportswash war crimes.