Paulo Alexandre Araujo, a sports performance and recovery specialist, has worked with the world’s top soccer players. But nothing, he said, could prepare him for the conditions he faced assisting Iran’s national team at the World Cup.
The U.S. government imposed strict time limits for Iran, forcing the team to immediately leave the stadium, and United States territory, after playing its World Cup games there, Mr. Araujo, a member of the Iran delegation, said. After the team’s opener against New Zealand, Mr. Araujo bandaged players on the aircraft ride back to their home base in Mexico, a treatment, he said, that would normally be carried out in the locker room. No other teams at the World Cup face the same restrictions.
Under the United States government’s time limits, Iran’s delegation is allowed into the country a day before a game and, afterward, has just enough time to reach the airport to depart.
Iran’s captain, Mahdi Taremi, and its coach, Amir Ghalenoei, expressed frustration about their treatment both before and after their game against New Zealand, which carried far more significance than a typical match between two teams that rarely make a sporting impact on the tournament. The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has placed its participation in the World Cup under severe scrutiny for months. Additionally, Los Angeles is home to a large Iranian diaspora community and a hotbed of opposition to the government in Tehran.
“There were so many unfair things, you know,” Mr. Araujo said in an interview in Tijuana, Mexico, where the Iranian squad stays between games. The difficulties, he said, started the moment the team touched down in the United States on Sunday. Several members of Iran’s delegation, including Mr. Araujo, faced detailed questions from U.S. border agents. The process, he said, took hours before another lengthy check was required outside the airport to enter the team bus.
The time spent clearing the team forced it to change plans. Instead of resting at their hotel, Iran’s players instead went straight to SoFi Stadium in the city of Inglewood, the site of their first contest, to fulfill media requirements and attend a prearranged stadium familiarization session.
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