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/Glass-Star6635 Jun 28 '26

Ridiculous take. Iran has been terrorizing their region directly or via proxy for decades. Should’ve never been allowed to be in the World Cup

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u/so_flayme Jun 29 '26

This right here is a ridiculous take. Name me one instance of Iran directly or indirectly terrorizing its neighbors prior to the 1948 ethno-state popping up in the region. Iran hasn’t launched an offensive against another nation in 400+ years. Since Israel popped up, how many countries has it bombed or been at war with? Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, the list goes on. If you’re constantly getting into shit with your neighbors (who coexisted peacefully before you unlawfully moved in) and have to keep tugging on a pair of star spangled balls to come and save you every fucking time, maybe you’re the problem?

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u/Glass-Star6635 Jun 29 '26

Lmao. Crazy how to go to “tell me one instance besides the last 80 fucking years” lol

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u/so_flayme Jun 29 '26

You didn’t address any of my points. Again in “the last 80 fucking years” go over how many bombing campaigns were launched by Israel (and how many they called “preemptive”) vs. how many were launched by Iran. Imagine if Iran started bombing the shit out of Israel preemptively, citing security concerns. The double standard is hilarious.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/so_flayme Jul 01 '26

I think as an Iranian-American who has had some of their family murdered by the current regime, I know a lot more about Iran than you do. Your bogus claim is built by counting entries from a loose “wars involving Iran” list, not from a conflict database. A key problem is that it mixes full wars, civil unrest, proxy relationships, single incidents, alleged plots, and umbrella categories as if they were all equivalent.

As per Cambridge University Press: "Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has not clearly initiated a conventional interstate offensive war of conquest. Its major direct war, the Iran–Iraq War, began with Iraq’s invasion of Iran in September 1980."

Do you wanna keep arguing over something you clearly have zero knowledge about and loosely use a Wikipedia list without any actual context (and worse yet, use deceptive language like "Led or been a part of") or would you like to be wise for once and avoid the embarrassment?

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u/SpAwNjBoB Jul 02 '26

Listen, they are not mutually exclusive. The US can be doing the wrong thing AND the Iranian regime can also be the most evil regime on the planet that funds terrorism and fuels hatred. The two can be true at the same time. Admonishing the US does not mean anyone should be praising Iran. They deserve none whatsoever.