Iran captain slams 'disaster' World Cup and demands FIFA stands up to the USA over treatment

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FT Desk

Iran captain Mehdi Taremi has called the 2026 World Cup a "disaster" and has pleaded with FIFA and president Gianni Infantino to intervene due to the treatment he and the Iran squad have suffered from the United States before and during the tournament.

Due to the ongoing war between the USA, in partnership with Israel, and Iran, the Iran squad have been forced to relocate to Tijuana in Mexico for the duration of the World Cup, even though all their group stage matches took place in the US. Each eligible player and member of staff was only granted 24-hour visas, which meant the team had to fly in before each match and quickly fly back out afterwards.

Eleven members of the travelling delegation were also denied visas entirely to enter the United States, which presented major logistical problems.

After three group stage draws, Iran could still qualify for the Round of 32 if certain results go in their favour. In their last match versus Egypt on Friday night, they were denied automatic qualification after VAR deemed their winning goal was offside, though replays showed it was likely the correct decision as the fixture finised 1-1.

Looking back at the overall treatment of himself and his compatriots over the last month or two, Taremi told The Athletic post-match:

"It’s a disaster World Cup; a disaster. I mean, FIFA, they have to solve every problem here but unfortunately they could not solve it since the beginning. Mr Infantino came to our changing room after the first game against New Zealand and said, ‘It’s just the beginning'.

"We don’t have our logistic people here - they don’t have a visa. How is it possible we always have to travel from Tijuana? We love the people in Tijuana. We love Mexico. They are humble people and we love them but as a professional player in a professional competition, it’s not right.

"It’s not fair. Our opinion is, it’s not fair. Is it fair for FIFA? OK, good to them. But it’s not fair. Who wants to help us? If they want us to be out, then OK, let’s get out. But that’s not fair. We don’t have recovery or logistic people to help us. We always complain about these things but no one helps, no one."

Head coach Amir Ghalenoei is certain that the back-and-forth travelling between Mexico and the United States has taken a physical toll on his players.

"I know Mr Infantino has tried his best to minimise the problems as much as possible but it was the host that wasn’t very good to us,” Ghalenoei explained.

"I urge FIFA not let the hosts treat teams and players the same way in the future. I hope Mr Infantino will actually stand up to such behaviour.

"Their behaviour towards us has been really terrible and we hope the world will be aware of that. They didn’t let us come two weeks earlier and two days earlier before every game. This has really hurt us. And we had a war as well. Despite all of these problems, we’ve been able to perform well and the world is proud of Iranians and our team. I think that’s our greatest achievement despite all the obstacles and the hurdles they put in our way."

Iran were originally meant to have their training base in Arizona, but were forced to relocate to Tijuana.

President Donald Trump previously claimed he could not guarantee the safety of the travelling Iranian contingent and that it would not be "appropriate" for them to travel to the USA for the World Cup.