Amir Ghalenoei Blasts Iran's Treatment at Fifa World Cup Football
Iran’s fifa world cup football night ended with a 2-2 draw against New Zealand, then an order to leave Los Angeles immediately. Amir Ghalenoei said the team was supposed to stay there to recover before being forced back to its camp in Tijuana.
Ghalenoei after the draw
“After the game today they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately,’” Ghalenoei said after Monday night’s match. He added, “I think our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup.”
That complaint came after Iran had already been told to arrive in Los Angeles two nights before the game but was not permitted to do so. The coach’s remarks turned the draw into a travel dispute as well as a result on the field.
Taremi on the disruption
Mehdi Taremi said, “Everything is like disaster, actually, for us,” after the match. Iran’s captain also said Gianni Infantino visited the team in the dressing room and told the squad, “You showed to your families, friends, to your people, to the world, that you’re in the World Cup, that you perform and you have two more games to go,”
The sequence matters because Iran had moved its training base from Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico before the tournament, then saw 15 members of its support staff denied visas to enter the US after arriving in Mexico. That number was later reduced to 11 after some visas were approved, but Iran still reached Los Angeles without both media officers, some analysts and federation president Mehdi Taj.
Iran's US logistics strain
All of Iran’s group stage games are taking place in the United States, so each border move and visa delay has shaped the tournament around travel instead of preparation. The order to leave Los Angeles immediately after the 2-2 draw sent the squad straight back to Tijuana on a night when it had expected to recover in place.
For Iran, the draw with New Zealand did not close the pressure around the campaign; it extended it. The team now has to keep playing through a tournament already defined by movement, missed staff and the gap between where it was expected to be and where it was allowed to go.
