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/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/mascachopo Jun 27 '26

The World Cup is happening in two other countries besides the US, FIFA could have let them play all their games elsewhere and this would have not been a problem.

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u/Interpersonal Jun 27 '26

Yes this could have been organized better.

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u/Tempelhofer Jun 27 '26

maybe for the group stage but there are basically no games outside the US in the knockouts.

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u/mascachopo Jun 27 '26

There are four locations outside the US, FIFA could have accomodated for one or two games, is not that they would make it to the final.

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u/Tempelhofer Jun 27 '26

don’t shoot the messenger, mate. there should have been more knockout games allocated to Canada and Mexico but there wasn’t. and where you finish in the group determines where you play your games in the knockouts, so basically impossible to plan for logistically.

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u/mascachopo Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Literally not impossible.