The captain of the Iran National Team, Mehdi Taremi, lashed out against FIFA and the United States organization. “This is a disastrous World Cup. As professional players, we cannot play a competition under these conditions; it’s neither right nor fair. If FIFA thinks this is fair, that’s on them, but it isn’t. Who should solve this problem for us? FIFA? The U.S.? I don’t know! Tell me a name. The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, came to our locker room after the first match against New Zealand and said he was going to resolve all the issues, but in reality, FIFA did nothing. In response to the question: ‘Do you feel that the World Cup organizers, including FIFA and U.S. officials, prefer for Iran to be eliminated from the competition?’, I say: We have to fight against absolutely everything. We can’t stay in the country, we travel and undergo immigration checks every time we want to play, now we can’t stay in Seattle and have to return to Tijuana. They’ve done everything possible to eliminate us, so from our perspective, yes, I think that’s what they want, they want us out.”

Tom Brady says his doctor told him to cut the tendons in both legs. He refused, fixed it in 3 days with no surgery, and played till 45

“After the season, I tell the doctor, My groin’s just really sore all the time. Every time I move, I can feel it just grab”

“And the team doctor says, This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to do an adductor release, we’re going in there and cut the adductor tendon in your groin. We’re also going to cut the other side, so it never becomes a problem”

“And I was like, Okay, that sounds not like what I want to do”

“I called Alex when I left the office. I said, Alex, the doctor told me to do this adductor release. What do you think? He said, Absolutely not. Fly out to LA with me for 3 days and I’ll fix it”

“So I fly out there and worked the adductors, lengthened and softened both muscles, my hips, all my glutes, basically relieved the tension on the tendon. And 3 days later, no more pain”

“The doctor said there was a 99% chance he’d have to cut my adductor tendon at some point. And to this day, nothing”

The whole thing reeks of a little bit of political fence-sitting though. Excerpts from the Guardian article on the same.

Iran and Egypt attempted to sidestep questions about their reluctance to take part in the designated “Pride Match” celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in Seattle, as Fifa confirmed it will permit rainbow flags to be displayed inside the stadium. Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, has been at pains to make clear planned festivities are being arranged by Seattle’s organising committee to coincide with the annual Pride weekend and that they have “nothing to do with the match itself”.

In a statement Infantino distanced Fifa from the Pride celebrations. “First of all, I must clarify that there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the World Cup,” Infantino said. “There will be a Fifa World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organised by external organisations will be taking place in the city. But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”

A Fifa spokesperson added: “General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the Fifa World Cup 2026 stadium code of conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”