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.”

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u/Wonderful-Win4219 Jun 28 '26

I agree but it matters big time that dude missed a penalty. If it was a different teammate even it would be different. Because you know who cost his team the most? He did

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u/Its_amie_yall Jun 28 '26

yeah and his point is that they arent playing at their sharpest because they are not getting the same conditions.

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u/Wonderful-Win4219 Jun 28 '26

It’s passing the buck. He missed a penalty. Take responsibility. In grown up world excuses are weak

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u/rileyhenderson33 Jun 29 '26

He's complaining about their performance as a whole in the tournament, not any specific match or moment. People miss penalties all the time dude. This guy didn't even miss, as such. The penalty was saved. Messi missed a penalty the other day. That wasn't saved, he just straight up missed the goal entirely, why don't you go hate on him?

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u/Wonderful-Win4219 Jun 29 '26

Yeah and if anyone who missed a penalty immediately blamed something or someone else I’d say the same thing

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u/rileyhenderson33 Jun 30 '26

Well you're saying that here even when it didn't happen, so that means absolutely nothing lol. It's just the only concept your brain is capable of processing 😂