Iran coach hits out at World Cup organizers as team draws with Belgium
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Iran's national soccer team coach has hit out at the US authorities after revealing an issue with the organization of the World Cup.
Amir Ghalenoei is allegedly unhappy amid his team’s participation in the global sporting event, which has seen masses of international athletes and visitors flock to the US in the hopes of seeing their faovorite team make history.
However, Ghalenoei has pointed out what he believes is an urgent problem in the tournament, which he says could have an impact on the players, and therefore their performance.
This comes after Iran has been left struggling with its schedule amid a number of its soccer staff having their visas rejected to enter the US – as Iran is on the list of restricted nations, as both nations have been embroiled in a war since the start of this year.
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The team also went on to change its base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, leaving the players to have to commute to the World Cup’s US Group G matches.
However, Ghalenoei said the problem lies in the US’s inconsistent restriction rules.
Per the Independent, the coach claimed his team had been left with just16 hours to prepare for their match with Belgium, which led them to cut things short.
He said: “We only managed to train half the time we usually spend on training. We wanted to have optimal physical and technical preparation.
“Look at the Belgium team,” he added. “They arrived yesterday noon. They've managed to have proper training.”
“The conditions have become even harder,” he claimed.
He went on to say that the team has been told they can decide their own travel schedule ahead of the final group match in Seattle against Egypt on Friday (June 26) but said this inconsistency has impacted his team’s ability to appropriately train ahead of matches.
He said: “For the third game, they've allowed us to decide to make our own decisions with regards to planning the travel. But what my problem is, why didn't they let us come earlier for the first two games as well? If they've managed to do this now, why didn't they do that for our first game and for this game?”
Ghalenoei, also expressed his frustration with not only the training schedule, but the flight plans too.
“We were in war conditions for six months, we didn’t have our league operating,” Ghalenoei said. “We had only one FIFA [friendly] date and it took us 40 hours to go and play a match outside of Iran. And our league was not operating and everybody knows about the visa situation, and they know what happened to us coming to the U.S.”
He went on to say, per The Post, that the team also were forced to fly back to Mexico immediately after their draw with Belgium, which he said took away their time to recover.
“We’ve only been here 16 hours and we have to fly back at 4 p.m.,” the coach said. “We don’t even have enough time to recover. And our players have needed time to recover, to be prepared, but we need to go to the airport and go back to Tijuana.”
UNILAD reached out to the US Department of State for comment.