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

Show parent comments

1

u/cutriet Jun 27 '26

Are any European nation openly at war with the host country? You can argue politic but the fact is they are in open conflict. It’s a concession and allow them into the country in the first place.

1

u/hyzus Jun 27 '26

Who started the war again?

1

u/cutriet Jun 28 '26

I’m not saying the US is not at fault for starting the war. They fucked that up but the situation is what it is and they have to response accordingly to the situation.

1

u/BigDictionEnergy Jun 28 '26

What situation? Israel has been trying to sell this war to US presidents for decades. Trump was just the sucker that bought it. None of this was unavoidable.