Italy’s repechage to World Cup set for momentous date

About a month before the start of the World Cup to be held between the United States, Mexico and Canada, Iran’s participation is still not 100 percent certain. Iran’s soccer federation, headed by President Mehdi Taj, has set non-negotiable conditions to FIFA, which, however, has not yet responded.

In the meantime, the team of Mehdi Taremi and his teammates is gearing up to fly to the American continent, and a very important date has been set: a ceremony will be held on Wednesday evening in Tehran’s Enghelab Square that will allow Iranian fans to greet the players. “After the ceremony, the national soccer team will travel to Antalya this weekend for training, then leave Turkey for the United States to participate in the World Cup,” reads the note released by the Irna news agency.

Intercepted by Shargh microphones, Mehdi Taj took stock of the situation: “At the end of the week I will go to Zurich together with Hedayat Mombeini to discuss with Gianni Infantino and the FIFA secretary general about World Cup participation. In addition, a trip to Ankara is planned to obtain visas for all team members.”

“If we declare that we do not want to participate in the World Cup, FIFA could legally replace us with another team and perhaps some people would not mind this happening…” the number one of Iran’s soccer federation then closed polemically.