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Iran’s head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, has said Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, must “stand up” to the US after reiterating his belief that the co-hosts have treated his team “very unfairly”.
Iran will qualify for the World Cup knockout stage for the first time if results go their way in the next 24 hours, but after a dramatic draw against Egypt in Seattle, in which Shoja Khalilzadeh had a stoppage-time winner ruled offside and Saeid Ezatolah headed against the bar, they were left frustrated with more than just the result.
Infantino visited Iran’s dressing room after their Group G opener against New Zealand, telling the squad “you are stronger than everything”, but while Ghalenoei maintains Infantino has tried his utmost to help them, ultimately little has changed since the tournament began. The head coach previously described Iran as the “most oppressed” team at the World Cup.
“I know Mr Infantino has tried his best to minimise the problems as much as possible but it was the host that wasn’t very good to us,” Ghalenoei said in his post-match press conference. “I urge Fifa to not let the hosts treat teams and players the same way in the future. I hope Mr Infantino will actually stand up to such behaviour.”
Iran’s captain, Mehdi Taremi, criticised Fifa’s handling of the situation and referenced the 11 senior officials who were denied entry to the United States. “Since the beginning, it’s a disaster World Cup. I mean, Fifa, they have to solve every problem here but unfortunately this they couldn’t solve since the beginning. Mr Infantino came to our changing room [after the] first game and he said: ‘It’s just the beginning.’ But [the] group stage finishes tomorrow and we don’t have our logistic people here, they don’t have a visa. How [is that] possible?”
Asked whether there was a feeling that the US and Fifa wanted Iran out of the tournament, the Olympiakos forward said: “We have to fight against everything here. I don’t know what people want or know, but as we see it by our perspective, yeah, they’d like that, I think.”
Iran were due to land in Tijuana, Mexico – where they are based after being forced to switch training base before the tournament – at 3am on Saturday after being denied permission to stay in Seattle. Ghalenoei added: “To my players and the team, I want to say to them I’m proud of them, what these young people, these players have done, it should be written in history because the host country treated us very unfairly.
“Had the host country allowed us to arrive two weeks earlier, we would have been more prepared. They were reasonable, rational demands. We would have been able to recover and be in better shape physically and mentally; however, they deprived us of that justice.
“When you play in a match, physically, scientifically, our bodies are at a low and when you suddenly go on a flight, that actually postpones your recovery and this is the third time they are doing this to us, we have to leave from here to the airport and we have to return to Tijuana and it will take us some three hours.
“Their behaviour towards us has been really terrible and we hope the world will be aware of that. They didn’t let us come two weeks earlier and two days earlier before every game. This has really hurt us. And we had a war as well. Despite all of these problems, we’ve been able to perform well and the world is proud of Iranians and our team. I think that’s our greatest achievement despite all the obstacles and the hurdles they put in our way.”
Egypt’s head coach, Hossam Hassan, played down fears their captain, Mohamed Salah, could miss Friday’s last-32 date with Australia in Dallas after the former Liverpool winger requested to be substituted approaching the hour. “If a player asks to be substituted, it means he felt something,” Hassan said. “I talked to Salah and he said he’s going to be OK and it’s not a big injury. We still have time to talk to the medical staff, I think he will be back and when I spoke to Salah he assured me he’s going to be OK.”
