Belgium<\/a>, 1-1 against Egypt. Against the Pharaohs,
\nMehdi Taremi missed from the penalty spot, Iran hit the crossbar, and Shoja
\nKhalilzadeh thought he had scored the goal that would carry Team Melli into
\nhistory, only for VAR to rule it out for offside.<\/p>\nBut Iran\u2019s tournament was never only about what happened
\nbetween the lines. The team had expected to base itself in Arizona, but
\npolitical tension and visa uncertainty pushed its camp to Tijuana, Mexico, and
\nfrom there, Iran had to commute into the United States for matches, with the
\nsquad required to enter within 24 hours of kickoff and leave the same day for
\ngames near Los Angeles. The restrictions were later eased before the Egypt
\nmatch in Seattle, but only partially.<\/p>\n
This was not routine inconvenience, because tournament
\nfootball is built on recovery, rhythm, staff access, treatment rooms, analysis
\nmeetings, sleep, and the feeling that the day before a match belongs to the
\nplayers, so for Iran, the day before a match was often spent on border
\nprocedure.<\/p>\n
Fifteen Iranian federation members were denied US visas,
\nincluding senior officials and support personnel, according to the national
\nteam, which also stated that its official ticket allocation had been withdrawn
\ndays before the tournament, while families, staff, and supporters became part
\nof the same administrative fog surrounding the squad.<\/p>\n
Taremi called it \u201ca disaster,\u201d telling reporters after Egypt
\nthat Iran had to travel again to Tijuana \u201cwithout recovery, without anything,\u201d
\nwhile coach Amir Ghalenoei called his side the most oppressed team in the
\ntournament and urged FIFA not to allow future hosts to treat teams in the same
\nway.<\/p>\n
Jules Boykoff, a former professional footballer and politics
\nprofessor at Pacific University in Oregon, told The Guardian before Iran\u2019s
\nopener that FIFA\u2019s dream of an apolitical World Cup had become a fantasy,
\ndescribing 2026 as the \u201cmost politically combustible World Cup ever,\u201d with the
\nIran-US-Israel war sitting at its center.<\/p>\n
Roger Bennett, founder of Men in Blazers, placed the issue
\nin a wider football frame, arguing that politics at the World Cup is \u201cnever
\nnew,\u201d because when nations play, their histories, cultures, and politics take
\nthe field with them.<\/p>\n
As Bennett said, everywhere Iran went, politics followed. In
\nLos Angeles, Iranian diaspora tensions filled the stands before the match had
\nsettled, with some fans carrying pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flags, others
\nbooing the anthem, and another portion cheering the players themselves.<\/p>\n
In Seattle, Egypt vs Iran had been designated locally as a
\nPride Match before the draw placed two Muslim-majority countries in the
\nfixture. Both federations objected, FIFA allowed rainbow flags, and the match
\npassed without incident. Taremi\u2019s answer afterwards: \u201cIran\u2019s religion does not
\naccept that, but the team respected [LGBT people] and had come to play
\nfootball.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Iran fan told Shafaq News that Iran carried all of those
\nissues, then added war, visa exclusions, missing staff, border restrictions,
\nprotest flags, and symbolic disputes that \u201cmade normal football feel almost
\nimpossible.\u201d <\/p>\n
For now, Iran go home unbeaten, exhausted, and unheard,
\nhaving played three opponents on the field and something larger around it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shafaq News After Iran\u2019s 1-1 draw with Egypt left their World Cup 2026 hopes hanging by a thread,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[122488,4,450,315089,451,801,315088,3,452,453,24],"class_list":["post-731748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-fair-play","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-iran-world-cup-2026s-most-oppressed-team","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}