By Hatem Maher
INGLEWOOD, California June 20 (Reuters) – Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei has criticised their increasingly difficult preparation conditions for Sunday’s World Cup match against Belgium, questioning why U.S. authorities appear willing to offer his team greater travel flexibility for their final group game but not their opening fixtures.
Iran have spent the tournament based in Tijuana, Mexico, commuting to the U.S. for their Group G matches because of restrictions surrounding their stay in the country, an issue that has drawn scrutiny throughout the World Cup.
U.S. officials have said the Iran squad’s travel arrangements would continue to be assessed, while discussions over easing some restrictions have continued.
Speaking on Saturday, Ghalenoei said the latest schedule left his team with less than 16 hours to prepare and forced them to cut training short ahead of their meeting with Belgium.
“We only managed to train half the time we usually spend on training,” he told reporters via an interpreter. “We wanted to have optimal physical and technical preparation.”
The coach said the situation was worse than before Iran’s opening 2-2 draw with New Zealand. He said that before that match they had 24 hours to train.
“The conditions have become even harder,” he said.
Ghalenoei reserved some of his sharpest criticism for what he described as an inconsistency in the treatment of Iran’s travel plans.
He said he had been told Iran would have greater control over their arrangements before their final group match in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.
“For the third game, they’ve allowed us to decide to make our own decisions with regards to planning the travel,” he said. “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, however, praised FIFA president Gianni Infantino and world soccer’s governing body for attempting to help.
“I know for sure that FIFA and Mr Infantino are doing the utmost to ease these challenges that we are facing,” Ghalenoei said. “I think FIFA did its utmost to minimise the problems we have faced.”
He also thanked U.S. authorities for facilitating the team’s arrival procedures despite his frustrations over the lost preparation time.
“Once we entered the United States, they made sure that in customs everything went smoothly,” he said. “I’d like to thank the U.S. for that. But unfortunately, it’s our training time that they did not give us.”
Belgium, who opened their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Egypt, arrive as favourites and had more time to settle before the match, according to Ghalenoei. The Iranian coach said his players would nevertheless focus on the football.
“Look at the Belgium team. They arrived yesterday noon. They’ve managed to have proper training,” he said.
“The Belgian team is a very strong and highly respected team and undoubtedly it’s going to be a tough game tomorrow. But we are also Iranians, and we have good players who have great potential.”
(Reporting by Hatem MaherEditing by Toby Davis)
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