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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1505 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for June 17, 2026

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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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