{"id":763885,"date":"2026-06-27T14:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763885\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:42:15","slug":"fifa-world-cup-2026-iran-captain-mehdi-taremi-takes-aim-at-fifas-assistance-for-national-team-visa-and-travel-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763885\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup 2026: Iran captain Mehdi Taremi takes aim at FIFA\u2019s assistance for national team, visa and travel issues,"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran<\/a> captain Mehdi Taremi has taken aim at FIFA<\/a> for trying \u201ceverything possible to eliminate\u201d his side, as they wait to learn their round of 32 fate.<\/p>\n

The side\u2019s time at the World Cup<\/a> has been far from simple, with visa and travel issues due to political conflicts between Iran and host nation the United States overshadowing their displays on the field consistently. <\/p>\n

\"Ramin<\/p>\n

Ramin Rezaeian (L) and Mehdi Taremi (R) of Iran react after the 1-1 draw\u00a0Alex Livesey<\/p>\n

An epic 1-1 draw to Egypt on Saturday<\/a> meant Iran would finish in third in their group as per the new head-to-head preference when it comes to group standings.<\/p>\n

With one day of group fixtures remaining, Iran have to travel back to their team base in Tijuana, Mexico before learning if they are through to the knockouts.<\/p>\n

As of the time of publication, Iran is the sixth-best third-place team. The nation will learn if they have qualified for the knockouts on Sunday afternoon (AEST). <\/p>\n

The emotions of coming in third and having to wait a little longer were clear in the tone of Taremi, who bluntly declared this World Cup has been \u201ca disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a disaster World Cup,\u201d he told reporters after the 1-1 draw to Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, FIFA, they have to solve every problem here but unfortunately, they could not solve it since the beginning. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr Infantino came to our changing room after the first game and said \u2018it\u2019s just the beginning\u2019 … but the group stage finishes tomorrow. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have our logistics people here, they don\u2019t have a visa. How is it possible we always have to travel from Tijuana without recovery?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019s not right.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur opinion is it\u2019s not fair. Is it fair for FIFA? OK, good to them. But it\u2019s not fair. Who wants to help us? Who? If they want us to be out, then OK – let\u2019s get out. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have recovery or any logistics people here to help us. We always complain about these things but no one helps, no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taremi went on to recognise how \u201csmall details\u201d can significantly impact a game, with VAR ultimately cruelling the team twice in the group stage. <\/p>\n

Iran manager Ami Ghalenoei, however, was not as generous when it came to reflecting on the intervention of the VAR team three times in this tournament. <\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology is justice,\u201d he said, \u201cbut, I\u2019m upset about our bad luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat these young Iranian national team players have done should be recorded in history. Why? Because the host treated us in the worst possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, despite the team\u2019s treatment over the course of the tournament, Taremi has high hopes that Iran will secure a place in the round of 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have hope and good energy in the dressing room,\u201d he ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will look forward and see what happens tomorrow. We did our best over 90 minutes. We are products of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they qualify for the knockouts, Iran will come up against Switzerland on July 2 in Vancouver, Canada<\/a> – that is if they remain the sixth-best third-placed team. <\/p>\n

\"Players<\/p>\n

Players react after their draw to Egypt.\u00a0Richard Heathcote<\/p>\n

Rouzbeh Cheshmi said it would be a \u201cdream come true\u201d to advance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to make our history, too,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf our dream comes true, thank God. If not, we are proud of our game and our players because of how we did the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran captain Mehdi Taremi has taken aim at FIFA for trying \u201ceverything possible to eliminate\u201d his side, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-763885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}