Taremi Blasts FIFA Over "Disaster" World Cup as Infantino's Dressing Room Visit Proves Hollow

Iran captain Mehdi Taremi has turned his ire on FIFA, labelling this World Cup a "disaster" and exposing the inadequacy of Gianni Infantino's response when the FIFA president visited the team's dressing room.

Despite being on track to advance to the last 32 as one of eight qualifying third-placed teams, Iran have navigated a minefield of logistical nightmares. War between their nation and the USA has forced the squad to relocate their base camp from American soil to Mexico, while their time on US territory has been severely restricted to match days only during their Group G fixtures.

Taremi's frustrations boiled over following back-to-back draws—first against New Zealand, then Egypt on Friday—as the organisational chaos continued to plague the Iranian contingent. "We always complain about these things since the beginning, it's a disaster World Cup. A disaster," he declared.

"As professional players in a professional competition, it's not right… it's not fair… if it's fair for Fifa, okay good for them. But it's not fair. Who wants to help us… no one helps. No one."

The 31-year-old demanded accountability, questioning who bore responsibility for resolving the mounting problems. "Who has to solve this problem for us? Who? Fifa? I don't know. USA. I don't know – just mention one name for me," he said, before turning his attention to Infantino's fleeting appearance.

"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?"

When pressed on whether the US and FIFA appeared intent on engineering Iran's elimination, Taremi pulled no punches. "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."

Manager Amir Ghalenoei echoed the sentiment, calling for stronger action from FIFA's leadership. While acknowledging that Infantino had made efforts to mitigate the difficulties, Ghalenoei was unsparing in his criticism of the hosts.

"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," he said at the 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."