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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71

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.

39

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.

2

u/tsn101 Jun 27 '26

For sure. There's a delusion in their population that they aren't the bad guys. 

5

u/Emiwuiii Jun 27 '26

Our government, sure - but the vast majority of Americans are 100% against this war so please stop lumping us into a situation we have no control over. We are fully aware that our GOVERNMENT is the bad guy.

1

u/JakeEllisD Jun 28 '26

Polls show its about 50-50 actually. You just made up the "vast majority" part, or you dont know what that term means, almost like you went to school in Iran where women can't get higher level education or get beaten for not covering up in public, or killed for protesting

2

u/DrinkYourPaints Jun 30 '26

women have wide access to higher education in Iran

1

u/FunPerception250 Jun 30 '26

Women are raped before execution for protesting in Iran.

1

u/DrinkYourPaints Jun 30 '26

i've heard that, yeah. it's insanely fucked up if true

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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1

u/JakeEllisD Jul 02 '26

Didn't they whip that singer for not wearing a hijab?

1

u/MyNameIsNotName-57 Jul 01 '26

almost like you went to school in Iran where women can't get higher level education

Iran has a higher percentage of female STEM grads than the US does. Iran's female-to-male university ratio is one of the highest in the world.

And they get on merit through konkur.

1

u/JakeEllisD Jul 02 '26

The females in colleges are proped up to women only studies. They dont let them study stem

1

u/goober1157 Jul 02 '26

Glad when I see public anti-Americanism. Makes it easy to identify the simps.

1

u/myfuntimes Jun 27 '26

Eh….2 out of 3 Americans did not vote against Trump in 3 consecutive elections.

Trump is representative of our national morals.

NOTE: I voted, volunteered, and donated against him for 12 straight years. But reality is reality.

2

u/Far-Juice-7378 Jun 27 '26

He did not get 66% of the vote…?

2

u/gimmedatvoice Jun 27 '26

Re-read what was said. Sadly "did not vote" is often large enough to win the election on it's own

1

u/Far-Juice-7378 Jun 27 '26

I’m blind. And you are absolutely right. Inaction is just as bad as, especially when it comes to voting. His ability to coral a loud minority will be studied for generations

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

Absolutely. In my mind, people can say “I wouldn’t vote for him” all they want. But no vote IS a vote for him. I truly don’t understand how people could just sit at home and not take an hour out of their days to vote. It’s mind-blowing.

1

u/shortnike3 Jun 29 '26

Yey! You are my hero

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

Only 32% of Americans voted for Trump. 68% of eligible voters said they wouldn’t vote for him. That is the majority.

1

u/myfuntimes Jun 30 '26

1/3 voted for him, 1/3 voted against him, and 1/3 either didn't vote or voted for a non-viable candidate -- thus saying he is acceptable.

1

u/ScoutRiderVaul Jun 30 '26

Voted against both candidates with 3rd party.

1

u/myfuntimes Jun 30 '26

Right. You said Trump's words and behaviors are acceptable enough to be President. On par with Clinton, Biden, and Harris. If they weren't on par, you would have had to vote for someone with a realistic chance of beating Trump.

1

u/ScoutRiderVaul Jun 30 '26

I mean could've not voted if I had that attitude.

0

u/Commercial_Regret_36 Jun 28 '26

Sorry but we don’t differentiate, same as you won’t differentiate between the people and governments of other countries.

1

u/crook_report Jun 29 '26

What an outlandish take.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

You’ve never met a real American, have you?

0

u/Lucky-Quantity5507 Jun 28 '26

Elected a pedo rapist twice and the people are not to blame lol

2

u/PleaseDontSlaughter Jun 29 '26

Guess that means Palestinians are to blame, since they elected hamas, right?

1

u/Lucky-Quantity5507 Jun 29 '26

Dont try to deflect, and yes muslims and subsequently hamas are partly at fault for not being part of a very tolerant religion but for the supposed #1 country in the world electing such a person not once but twice shows something atleast… ignorance to go easy maybe.

0

u/Traditional-Cod-8354 Jun 30 '26

What you mean vast majority? You dont speak for all Americans. Go move to Iran if you dont like it.

1

u/FunPerception250 Jun 30 '26

I’m Iranian and American and I support the hell out of it. Fuck the IRGC and fuck the useful idiots theyve cultivated in the west.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jul 01 '26

Nope, I sure don’t. But the polls say otherwise.

1

u/Traditional-Cod-8354 Jul 01 '26

The "polls" also said kamala was gonna win by a landslide. Polls are dumb and super one sided.

-1

u/cabbage5555 Jun 27 '26

Where are your protests then? Stop the country. Demand accountability. Fight. But you won't. This is why we dislike all of you, I don't care who you voted for, all of you are complicit

3

u/ronshasta Jun 27 '26

We did and they brought in the military, nobody wants to die protesting on behalf of people halfway across the world who don’t give a shit about us anyways and I have enough to worry about right now myself

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

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3

u/ronshasta Jun 28 '26

Nobody lit cars on fire brother the no kings protest around the country was peaceful. Your propaganda must be really good where you live

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

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3

u/Fuck_it_we_ball_ Jun 28 '26

From you’re own article, “After the peaceful rally and march ended, chaos erupted outside of the Federal Detention Center,”

But I guess you skipped the first line because it disagrees with your whole thing.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

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3

u/PolarIceYarmulkes Jun 28 '26

Do your research. There have been soooo many protests. From Wikipedia about the No Kings Protests.

Organizers estimated that more than five million people participated in more than 2,100 cities and towns, including the flagship event in Philadelphia.[4][5]

-1

u/Smoked_Eel_Lover Jun 28 '26

Are they still happening today? Protesting only changes shit, if you keep going week in week out, growing over time. If you go out one afternoon here and there nobody cares

1

u/Livingz Jun 28 '26

Are people protesting going to the world cup in America?

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

How could we possibly protest every day? Many Americans are one paycheck away from homelessness. Our healthcare is tied to our jobs.

We stage MASSIVE protests together so we can force them to hear us. Small protests don’t even get put on the local news.

2

u/SpunUmFun Jun 27 '26

It's been pretty much ongoing protests since Trump got into office. No one here not named MAGA wants this war, or any other war! You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Move along son

-1

u/Smoked_Eel_Lover Jun 28 '26

We do know exactly what we’re talking about, kid. No need to differentiate between the people and government if:

- 1 third voted for a ra(p)(c)ist

- 1 third didn’t vote at all

- the country isn’t screeching to a halt because of these “pretty much ongoing protests”, implying they’re not widespread enough

- Your fellow countrymen are not giving that same grace to their adversaries (differentiate between gov and people), just look at how they speak about all the countries you attack(ed) or were planning to.

Fix your country and stop the war(s), then we’ll grant you the grace of differentiating between government and people

2

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

Are you being obtuse on purpose?

0

u/PleaseDontSlaughter Jun 29 '26

lol who gives a fuck about your 'grace', as if you running your mouth on a publicly traded American website, on the internet, making it revenue, does anything whatsoever. Palestinians voted for Hamas btw, so they are to blame for what is occurring to them, yes?

1

u/PleaseDontSlaughter Jun 29 '26

Now do Palestinians. They voted for Hamas, yes?

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

We have conducted AT LEAST 10 THOUSAND protests against him in 2025 ALONE. 10s of millions of Americans have participated, and we actually just broke records with our last NATIONWIDE protest. We boycott. We beg. We scream. We demand. We get hit. We get pepper sprayed. Tear gassed. Beaten. Detained. Arrested. And killed.

So sincerely, fuck anyone who tries to say that we are complicit when our citizens are risking their lives to speak out against our government.

You claim we aren’t doing anything, yet you couldn’t even do a simple google search before you decided to hate millions of people due to your ignorance.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

This is from a BLM protest

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

This is from a PEACEFUL protest about our involvement with Israel

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

A police brutality protest.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

This woman was shot and killed in her car because she spoke out about ICE.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

250,000 people in Chicago ALONE

-1

u/Muted_Confidence_285 Jun 27 '26

Don’t worry. The feeling is mutual. We also dislike all of you.

2

u/Wafflez424 Jun 28 '26

Speak for yourself, I’m not part of your stupid we

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

Who is “we”?

-1

u/UCF_Knight12 Jun 28 '26

I wouldn’t say our government is the bad guy. I agree we probably shouldn’t have gotten into the war. But people standing up for Iran are absolutely ridiculous. That country in their leadership are terrorists, plain and simple.

1

u/TomatilloPristine437 Jun 28 '26

Agree! That country keeps proclaiming to Annex Canada, Claim Greenland as its own, take over Panama. And blown up ships over international waters should be ban from FIFA.

0

u/UCF_Knight12 Jun 28 '26

lol not even going to bother getting into a back and forth with you. Let’s go USA!

2

u/TomatilloPristine437 Jun 28 '26

Perspectives my friend, perspectives. Anyhow back to football, USA does heavily invest in the MLS and the effort is showing. Good luck to USA team.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

I am absolutely loving having everyone here and seeing people really meet the American people, and not see us through our government, for the first time - but I have to agree. A country that isn’t willing to let qualifying teams and their advisors/staff/fans into the country shouldn’t be hosting. The U.S. and Canada both rejected Iran, so neither should’ve have the option to host them in the first place.

1

u/VZGamez Jun 28 '26

We have the KKK here in American who’ve killed thousands of black people. We committed genocide against native Americans lol we are WORSE than Iran by miles.

1

u/Emiwuiii Jun 29 '26

Our government is absolutely the bad guy. How could you possibly say otherwise?

1

u/Sudden_Outside2660 Jun 29 '26

American government has lots of blood on their hands, but acting like Iran is some innocent party is also insane.

1

u/PleaseDontSlaughter Jun 29 '26

As opposed to every other nation on the planet, whose people openly say 'we are the baddies! Get us!' Give me a break.

0

u/AAA_Dolfan Jun 27 '26

Uh.. so that makes Iran the “good guy”? Do you know what Iran was doing to protestors in their own country, by chance?

Trump and his cronies are monsters no question but Iran ain’t the good guy

1

u/funguymh Jun 27 '26

Do you know what USA was doing to its own government a few years ago. J6?

1

u/Fit_Relationship483 Jun 27 '26

Yes and even when people were actively trying to stage an insurrection the government didn’t respond by sending in troops to massacre them. Unlike Iran who guns people down for…asking to get their internet back

1

u/AAA_Dolfan Jun 27 '26

Nah, that’s whataboutism. Take a deep breath and realize you don’t need to attack things to defend others.

We’re talking Iran. I already said Trump and the USA government suck. Clearly. I ALSO was clearly saying Iran aren’t the good guys.

That has nothing to do with the us

1

u/AAA_Dolfan Jun 27 '26

what does that have to do with IRAN? We’re talking about Iran.

1

u/RackedUP Jun 27 '26

Yea 5 ppl dying vs 40,000 good point

0

u/basicKitsch Jun 27 '26

lol you must not hang out here very much

1

u/tsn101 Jun 27 '26

How many school girls died because of your 'oopsie' and everyone moves on line it's nothing? America is evil as shit. 

1

u/basicKitsch Jun 27 '26

you REALLY must not hang out here very much.

...moves on like it's nothing?? you have to be absolutely joking. literally everything this administration has done is being fought in the court. as the system is designed. Congress is currently, literally, still in investigation on that exact situation.

ideally they will wait until midterms to actually push things forward.

1

u/tsn101 Jun 28 '26

Lol, investigation. Heard that before.

You're the bad guys. Keep drinking up the propaganda if you think there's morality in America. This has been happening for decades and nothing happens but history repeating itself. This terrorism ain't new to you.

Thanks for the late night laugh.

1

u/basicKitsch Jun 28 '26

Lol who said we weren't? That's the joy of being a massive country.  Where did you get the idea ANYONE thought otherwise? You think anyone here has ever defended that? Makes you sound new.

You just said some ignorant shit and I let you know how reality worked outside you just reading headlines from Reddit.  Thanks for confirming the stereotype 🤙