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Iran manager calls team World Cup’s ‘most oppressed,’ after they were immediately sent back to Mexico after match in US
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Iran manager Amir Ghalenoei has alleged his team was told it needed to leave Los Angeles immediately following its 2-2 draw against New Zealand on Monday night.
The Iranian team initially planned to stay in California after the game for recovery and return to its base camp in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, June 16.
“They didn’t even give us time to recover after the game today,” Ghalenoei said in Farsi, via FIFA’s interpreter. “They said to us, you have to leave immediately, whereas today, it’s very important for us to have time for recovery, but yet [we] have been asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Mexico, in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that.”
Iran’s very participation in the World Cup was in question until the last minute due to its war with the United States and Israel.
Although the team was initially scheduled to establish its base camp in Arizona, the plan was later changed to Tijuana.
While all players, including captain Mehdi Taremi, who previously served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, received visas to enter the United States, several members of the support staff and a number of Iranian journalists were denied entry permits.
Taremi and Mohammad Mohebi told reporters in the mixed zone that FIFA president Gianni Infantino was in their locker room pre-game promising help, though exactly what came from that was left unclear.
“Perhaps our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup,” Ghalenoei said. “The head of the federation is absent. Our media isn’t here, our management, many of them aren’t here. We used to have part of the coaching team to help with substitutions, but we didn’t have that. … That’s why I think we are the most oppressed team in the World Cup.”
