Iran’s head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, has reportedly criticized their treatment in the US, claiming that his team is the “most oppressed” at the World Cup.
The dispute between Iran and the US has had a significant influence on the team’s preparation for the competition, forcing them to relocate their training camp to Mexico.
In their first Group G match on Tuesday, they defeated New Zealand 2-2 thanks to a fanatical Iranian-American crowd that cheered them on after some of the 70,000 spectators at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles booed their anthem.
Iran were not even anticipated to participate at these finals when co-hosts the United States and Israel started a bombing campaign in February.
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Even while a peace agreement may have eventually been reached on Sunday, Ghalenoei’s criticism of the US authorities throughout the game’s build-up only served to underscore the intricacies and divided opinions surrounding the team’s participation.
“We’ve spent so much time commuting in the air,” he said as quoted by Sky Sports. “They didn’t even give us time to recover after the game today. They said we had to leave immediately.
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“It’s very important for us to have time for recovery and yet we were asked to return to Tijuana and we are really troubled by that.
“We do not know why they are returning us. I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us, decisions are made elsewhere, we were supposed to arrive two nights before the game and we were not permitted, we were supposed to stay tonight and return tomorrow lunchtime but I have no idea why, and they haven’t told us.
“Our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup.”
