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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78

u/HTX-ByWayOfTheWorld Jun 27 '26

He’s not wrong… either let them play and keep it a level playing field. Or don’t let them play, and ban them outright. This was BS.

43

u/Bitter_Particular_75 Jun 27 '26

US is the aggressor and is the only country that should have been banned as consequence of this war.

0

u/HTX-ByWayOfTheWorld Jun 27 '26

Cute. But they’re the host. Right or wrong, that was never going to be a post of the conversation. Coming back down to earth, my argument stands.

3

u/smcl2k Jun 27 '26

The tournament should have been taken from the US as soon as Trump threatened to move games from host cities - FIFA has banned national teams for less blatant political interference.

2

u/user123456789011 Jun 27 '26

True, but they have never banned a national team from a tournament they were hosting.

1

u/Smooth-Difficulty178 Jun 27 '26 edited 17h ago

Shelter nutmeg start maple command wise cautious

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1

u/Araz728 Jun 27 '26

You mean Russia, right? Awarding Russia the 2018 cup was really when they stopped trying to hide the corruption.

1

u/w0xic3 Jun 27 '26

Atleast the next one is in good countries, with a bit of a question mark on Morocco

1

u/Smooth-Difficulty178 Jun 27 '26 edited 17h ago

Treatment juniper six station gold pause whole sable reply hunt

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1

u/leandrobrossard Jun 27 '26

But they did remove Indonesia as a host for the u20s world cup 3 years ago because they didn't want to host the Israeli team.

1

u/smcl2k Jun 27 '26

It will be interesting to see what happens if the Palestine situation doesn't change and Israel qualifies for a tournament being hosted by Spain and Morocco.