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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   994 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for June 17, 2026

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https://thehill.com/policy/sports-gaming/5925843-iran-world-cup-travel-issues/

It seems like it would be elementary to keep eyes on the members of the traveling team while they are in Los Angeles, and attempting to use them to spy on Tehrangeles is a silly conceit to begin with.

Maybe I'm caught up in cold war nostalgia, but the story used to be that when Soviet bloc teams traveled to America it was the commies that locked them up in the hotel to make sure they didn't defect, rather than the Americans that hustled them out ASAP. We should WANT Iranian players to see rich happy free America, full of rich happy Persians, and go home and think about how their home could be less of a shithole if they spent less energy hating Jews.

And I think you need to be more specific re:racism. In my lifetime there is no level of organized American sport where a white player calling a Black player a nigger isn't a major foul. Because we understand that in a contact sport you can't say shit like that and not get violence. We can argue about where on the hyperstitious scale we should fall, or about how slurs are the only real profanity left, but for racial slurs to be accepted in sport in America you're reaching back to Hammerin' Hank or Victory's Glory.

The other aspect is the issue of holding an entire world's worth of players to anglo-american HR standards. Hence the controversies about South American players calling each other "negrito" or similar as a nickname. Generally, in soccer, intentional racial slurs from players are as vanishingly rare as they are in the US, but very common from randos in comment sections or occasionally in the stands.

Is the Iranian thing solely due to US officials? The womens' team had like half of the team trying to defect in Australia during the outbreak of the war which surely has to be some part of the calculus here.

And I think you need to be more specific re:racism. In my lifetime there is no level of organized American sport where a white player calling a Black player

You're right, maybe I'm over indexing on the teammate experience, where we'd drop all kinds of insults and slurs on each other but very rarely say something to the other team.

Oh that I'd absolutely agree with, my apologies if I misinterpreted. We were absolutely racist to eachother all the time. In Scouts we often noted that we made jokes about our one Chinese kid all the time, but when another troop said a word it was fightin' time. I don't think it would have even occurred to us that if you called an opposing player a slur during a game in front of a ref you wouldn't face consequences.

I'm sure World Cup players are free to say all kinds of disgusting things in non-public training, but on the field there should be standards of sportsmanship. That should be understood as part of the deal: we let players be famous and wealthy and praised, and in return they agree to act like role models. But then I'm an old codger who misses the Yankees' appearance rules, and thinks players with visible tattoos should have to pay a fine every match.

No no I think what you are saying makes sense.

Maybe I'm caught up in cold war nostalgia, but the story used to be that when Soviet bloc teams traveled to America it was the commies that locked them up in the hotel to make sure they didn't defect, rather than the Americans that hustled them out ASAP.

I think that's more than likely the exact situation that's happening here. Note this very important point from the article you linked:

Ghalenoei did not say who ordered his team to depart the U.S. back to Mexico.

It's all blamed on "officials", not specifying where from. Unless you're quite far gone in the "the US is a fascist state!" propaganda, I think you'll agree that if it was US officials doing it, the coach could have just said so and not suffered any repercussions, which leads me to be about 98% certain the request was from Iran's side. The Hill (and the AP they're sourcing) are just being disingenuous in implying that it could be the US, because they want their readers who already believe the US would do this to come to that conclusion. In fact, if they had any belief it was the US they could have asked and investigated. What seems likely here is that the "multiple members of the team’s traveling party" that did not get visas were the team's IRGC chaperones and Iran is not comfortable with their players being in the US without them.

Yeah the Iranian Womens team had a bunch of defectors in Australia at the start of this year. I don't get why the US would benefit from fucking around the players so much whilst the Iranian government has a far clearer motive to stop potential defections and/or make the US look unreasonable.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/apr/17/iranian-womens-football-team-players-asylum-australia-brisbane-roar-training

You know you might be right, I look forward to the classification from DHS that the Iranian team is welcome to stay as long as they please.

The more I look into this story, the more I see tortured journalism.

Here:

“This issue has been resolved,” the State Department said Tuesday. “As soon as we became aware of the issue, we worked to ensure that the player can participate in every game.”

Giuliani said during an interview broadcast Monday night on CBS News that some of the Iranian team’s support staff and team officials were denied entry into the U.S. But he said that all the players and coaches had received visas. He also outlined the conditions by which the Iranian team would be able to come into the U.S. for their games.

“The team will be allowed to come in, match day minus one, so the day before the match. They’ll be asked to leave the day that the match wraps up, so the evening of the match. And they’ll be able to do that again in Los Angeles. They’ll be able to do it again in Seattle,” Giuliani said. The team's next match is Sunday, in LA.

"They'll be asked to leave" by whom? Of course, the article is written to imply that it's the US that's having them leave, but... Who gave that order? The whole thing seems to be deliberately written and carefully quoted so that if this arrangement was made and decided between Iran and FIFA it would still be true, and having it be said by an american official is just so that they can imply the order is from him without stating it. About all the articles I find are sourcing the same stuff and are all carefully avoiding stating that the US is forcing the team out, only stating "this was the plan", not stating whose plan. Note that when something IS an order from the US government, the wording is much less weasely and attribution is clear:

When asked about why some support staff and team officials had been denied entry, Giuliani wouldn’t go into details but referred to previous comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio about denying entry to people with direct ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

“Secretary Rubio said very clearly: Anybody with direct ties to the IRGC is not coming into the United States of America, and they’re not going to let the World Cup be the reason why they can come in,” Giuliani said. “So I think it’s very clear why.”

Also note that Iran's delegation has clear spooks in it, so to me, the story sounds a lot like: Iranian team has as part of its delegation IRGC elements in it. Probably not to spy on the US but to keep an eye on the players and dissuade defectors. The US and Canada refuse them visas. Iranian team complains to FIFA, they arrange with FIFA that ok, the players are allowed but they play their games and get back to Mexico where they do have handlers. This plan is communicated to the US officials who say "ok, whatever, as long as the obvious IRGC elements are not coming in that's not a problem".

Yeah this is also my read of the situation. High profile defectors from the Soccer team happened at the start of the year and the US isn't being totally unreasonable in filtering some of the more politically-exposed people from the Iranian Team's posse from entering the country.

Also a spot where the USA can't really directly contradict the narrative without opening up further vectors for attack in the press. I'm sure there's some effort from the USA to fuck with the team, but realistically the players defecting is like the only potential scenario of consequence that could happen here.

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