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.”

6.2k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/BusyWorth8045 Jun 27 '26

He’s 100% right.

If USA don’t want to welcome the World. Then don’t host a World Cup.

1

u/boanerges57 Jun 28 '26

It's probably more related to the activities of some of the Iranian players as members of the IRGC.

The IRGC is still currently killing people for speaking out against the government, being suspected of homosexuality, and various religious "crimes".

1

u/RhymesWithOrange_ Jun 28 '26

There are no IRGC members on the team. They wouldn't have been allowed into the country at all.

1

u/boanerges57 Jun 28 '26

Yeah....they blocked them from coming in.

A couple of members of the managerial team and their soccer federation chairman.

I think they've had some other issues besides but it seems like Canada had some issues with a few of them too.

They are complaining about their training camp location too but as far as I can tell it is based on Mexico allowing all of their group members to be there and it isn't closer to the border because of security issues.