‘It’s a disaster World Cup…’ : Iran captain Mehdi Taremi lashes out at FIFA

Iran played our a 1-1 draw against Egypt at Seattle on Saturday and travelled back to their base in Mexico

Iran's Mehdi Taremi (9) reacts at the end of the World Cup Group G soccer match between Egypt and Iran in Seattle, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

By: Express News Service

4 min readJun 27, 2026 05:16 PM IST First published on: Jun 27, 2026 at 05:16 PM IST

With the 1-1 draw against Egypt in their group G encounter at Seattle on Saturday, Iran has failed to win any match in the ongoing FIFA World Cup. The Mehdi Taremi led team, which was earlier scheduled to set base at Tucson, Arizona, for their World Cup campaign, had to set base in Tijuana, Mexico with the US government stopping the nation’s football team to set base in the country amid the US-Iran war and making the Iran football team leave the US cities the same night as of their matches in the World Cup. Iran skipper Mehdi Taremi has hit out at FUFA as well US authorities calling the World Cup a ‘disaster World Cup’.

“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. FIFA president Gianni Infantino came to our changing room after the first game against New Zealand and said, ‘It’s just the beginning…’ but the group stage finishes tomorrow,” Taremi told reports after the team’s loss against Egypt on Saturday.

Prior to the World Cup, it was not certain whether Iran would be competing in the tournament amid the US-Iran war and the team got the visa only ten days prior to the start of the World Cup. Post the talks between the US government and FIFA, the Amir Ghalenoei coached Iranian team arrived in Tijuana in Mexico for the World Cup with the city acting as their base for the World Cup in place of Tucson, Arizona. Post their opening match against New Zealand at Los Angeles, the team and the coaching staff were told to leave the USA the same night. Post their second match against Belgium at Los Angeles too, the team left the USA the same day. Tarmi spoke about how the team doesn’t have their logistics team and how nobody hears the team’s complaints. “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.”said the captain.

Saturday’s loss means that Iran has finished third in Group G with their fate in the World Cup relying on other results. If Algeria and Austria play a draw in Group J along with Democratic Republic of Congo beating Uzbekistan and Croatia playing a draw against Ghana, iIan will be out of the World Cup. Taremi also shared how difficult it was for the Iranian players to travel immediately post their matches. “We have to fight against everything here. I don’t know what people want. As we see it from our perspective, yeah, they like that I think…how possible is it if we play 90 minutes and we have to go back to Tijuana?” said the Iranian captain.

Post their opening match, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had visited the team’s dressing room post the match and addressed the Iranian team. “I know what you go through, I understand. But you are stronger than everything, and you send a strong message to the entire world,” Infantino had told the team.