Iran World Cup team says it's been deprived of 'justice' by USA, FIFA

SEATTLE — Iran has had an arduous World Cup journey, arguably the most difficult of the tournament. Its opponents on the pitch have had little to do with the challenges. Rather, it's been the circumstances off it.

“We have to fight against everything here,” team captain Mehdi Taremi said after Iran's 1-1 draw against Egypt on Friday that left its knockout-stage hopes in limbo.

Iran has had to deal with travel issues – including denied visas – as well as a last-minute change in its base-camp location. Now, after VAR ruled a potential game-winning goal offside for the second consecutive match, Iran has had yet another thing fall out of its control.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino visited Iran's locker room for its World Cup opener against New Zealand and, according to Taremi, told the players the issues they were experiencing were due to it being "just the beginning" of the tournament.

“The group stage finishes tomorrow," Taremi said Friday, "and we don’t have our logistics people here. They don’t have a visa.”

Due to the ongoing war between Iran and the World Cup host United States, Iran moved its base camp from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, hundreds of miles away from Los Angeles and Seattle, where it played its group-stage matches.

Iran’s team and staff were not allowed into the country until 24 hours prior to their first two matches in Los Angeles, and 48 hours prior to this final group stage match in Seattle. Some officials and staff were denied visas entirely.

“The host country treated us very unfairly,” Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei said. “We wanted to arrive two days early, have time for recovery. We would've been in better shape physically and mentally, but they deprived us of that justice."

Iran played to three draws in group play, finishing third in Group G with three points. Now, Iran will have to wait through the end of the last group-stage matches Saturday to find out whether they will end up as one of the top eight third-place teams that advance to knockout rounds.

“Imagine we get our luck and pass the group stage, but we don’t have any recovery,” Taremi said, referring to the team having to return to Tijuana immediately after Friday's match.

Ramin Rezaeian, Friday's goal scorer for Iran, had a different reaction than Taremi to what the Iranian team has gone through during its World Cup experience.

“I don’t like to complain, I don’t like that,” said Rezaeian, a 36-year-old defender. “But my people in Iran deserve more than anything. They deserve more happiness. They deserve everything.”

Carter Braun and Jack Cooney are students in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.