Iran World Cup team: "we are not political"
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- Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei and forward Mehdi Taremi, capped over 100 times and currently at Olympiacos, said at Sunday's prematch news conference that they represent "the respectful people of Iran" both inside the country and in the diaspora, insisting: "We are not political people."
- Iran's Group G schedule opens against New Zealand on Monday in Los Angeles, followed by Belgium on June 21 (also in LA) and Egypt on June 26 in Seattle, per the article.
- The squad relocated its training camp from Arizona to Mexico and several staff were blocked from entering the US due to visa processing issues linked to a February conflict in which the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran — hostilities the article says were the subject of a reported peace deal Sunday.
- Los Angeles hosts the largest Iranian population in the US, and reports cited in the article indicate tens of thousands could stage protests outside SoFi Stadium in neighboring Inglewood before Monday's kickoff.
- Taremi closed his remarks by noting "nobody asked any football-related questions," telling reporters: "For the political, you have to go to other cities for this political press conference."
Why it matters: Iran's squad is walking into the most politically charged Group G opener of the tournament, forced to publicly defend its neutrality while protests tied to recent US-Israeli military action and visa disruptions loom outside the stadium. The repeated insistence by Ghalenoei and Taremi that football should unite all Iranians is undermined by the logistics themselves — a training camp relocated to Mexico, staff denied US entry — and by the sheer size of LA's Iranian diaspora gathering to demonstrate.
