09/06/2026

SPORTS TUESDAY | JUNE 9, 2026

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2026 WORLD CUP

Mehdi leads Iran veterans as disruptions hamper World Cup preparation

Wood urges New Zealand to ‘create some history’

CHRIS WOOD urged New Zealand to “create some history” after he was named captain of the World Cup squad who will be chasing a first-ever win at the global showpiece. Prolific Nottingham Forest striker Wood will lead the lowest-ranked side at this year’s tourna ment, which begins this week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The All Whites are 85th in the Fifa rankings and failed to win a match at their two previous appearances, including 2010 in South Africa, when Wood made three appearances as a substi tute. Wood, who has scored 45 goals in 88 interna tionals, believes New Zealand have the depth and quality to challenge their Group G opponents Iran, Egypt and Belgium. “It’s been a long time, 16 years, since we’ve been in the World Cup,” Wood said via video link at the squad announcement in Auckland. “I can’t wait to share the moment with this team and hopefully create some history. I hope that we can do everybody proud and show the world what we’re capable of.” Wood returned to action in April, having been in doubt for the World Cup with a knee injury that forced him to miss most of Forest’s English Premier League campaign. On their World Cup debut in 1982, New Zealand lost all three group matches in Spain. But in 2010 they were unbeaten after drawing all three group matches – against holders Italy (1-1), Slovakia (0-0) and Paraguay (1-1) – but failed to advance to the knockout stages. Coach Darren Bazeley made one surprise selection in veteran defender Tommy Smith, who started all three matches in South Africa 16 years ago. The 36-year-old now plays in the fifth tier of English football, for Braintree Town, but Bazeley said the former England age-group player’s wis dom would be invaluable. “With a squad of 26, not everybody is

New Zealand clubs, Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix. New Zealand defender Tim Payne is taking his sudden social media fame in his stride after his Instagram account exploded from 4,715 followers to 4.2 million after an Argentine influencer decided he was the least-known player at the World Cup and urged his audience to give him likes, comments and follows. Influencer Valen Scarsini, known as “elscarso” on Instagram and TikTok , lit the fuse at the end of May when he made a video encouraging his fol lowers to show their support for the Wellington Phoenix defender. Payne’s Instagram audience has since out stripped most New Zealand athletes and public figures, including cricketer Kane Williamson (3.3 million followers) and the All Blacks rugby team (2.8m). Payne posted a video last Friday thanking Scarsini in Spanish and saying it had been a “pretty crazy 48 hours”. His feed is peppered with good will messages in multiple languages. “Our GOAT. No Payne, no gain,” wrote one fol lower. New Zealand earned their World Cup berth by winning the Oceania qualifying series in March. Their first oppo

IRAN coach Amir Ghalenoei named a 26-man squad for the World Cup last week, relying on veterans Mehdi Taremi and Alireza Jahanbakhsh, while leaving out Sardar Azmoun. Sardar, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals, was left out of the preliminary squad, and did not make the final squad, despite Iran’s Vice President, Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, calling for him to return. Sardar, who plays for Shabab Al Ahli in the United Arab Emirates, was also omitted from the Iran squad in March, with local media reporting he had been expelled from the national team for a perceived act of disloyalty to the government. Mehdi, 33, who plays for Olympiacos, and former Brighton & Hove Albion winger Alireza, will lead the attack in the tournament. Iran, who have faced months of uncertainty over travel and security arrangements for the World Cup, will base their squad in the Mexican bor der city of Tijuana

request to change countries from the United States to Mexico, due to prob lems encountered in obtaining visas, was accepted by Fifa,” the head of Iran’s football federation Mehdi Taj said. “We will therefore be based in Tijuana, near the Pacific Ocean. It is a city that lies between Mexico and the US, but it is located in Mexico. We have actually completed the team building there.” Mehdi said that the move would help to avoid complications related to visas and that the squad could use Iran Air flights to travel directly to Mexico. “The distance for us in the two games that we have in LA will be a 55 minute flight. Which is a lot less com pared to Tucson,” the federation presi dent said. The build-up to Iran’s fourth straight World Cup appearance has been heavily disrupted by the conflict with the United States and Israel, leav ing coach Amir little time to raise fit ness levels and develop match sharp ness in his aging squad. All but six of Amir’s squad are based in the country’s Persian Gulf Pro League, which has been suspended for weeks as a result of the hostilities. The coach acknowledged that the World Cup will be the last time many of the senior players represent the side. “We hope to put on acceptable per formances at the World Cup, and then prepare for the Asian Cup, because after the World Cup we will also undergo a generational change,” he said recently. In each of Iran’s six appear ances at the World Cup, stretching back to their debut

during the finals, after Fifa approved a request to move the

nents in Group G will be Iran in Los Angeles, on June 16 (9am Malaysian time), before facing Egypt on June 22 and Belgium on June 27, both in Vancouver, Canada.

training camp from Arizona.

“Fortunately,

thanks to the meetings we had with

Fifa offi cials … our

going to play,” Bazeley said. “So we added Tommy because his leader ship is great. He’s going to be so important for the players keeping everybody on track. We’ll lean on him a lot.” Bazeley said Wood

Chris Wood

in 1978, the country has exited the competition at the end of the group phase, achieving only three wins in 18 matches.

Mehdi Taremi

The most agonis ing of those elimi nations have come in the last two edi tions, with Iran

and European-based midfielders Joe Bell, Marko Stamenic, Matt Garbett and Ryan Thomas will be key players. Ten of the squad play in the

Australian A League com petition, including eight at the league’s two

picking up wins over Morocco in 2018 and Wales in 2022 only to miss out on

expanded tournament, with a third place finish in the group possibly enough to secure progress. Iran are scheduled to play all three of their group matches in the United States. They will take on New Zealand on June 16 (9am Malaysian time) and Belgium on June 21 in Los Angeles, and Egypt five days later in Seattle.

from those two tournaments, when Iran were coached by Carlos Queiroz, remain in the squad and 16 are at least 30, including defenders Shoja Khalilzadeh (37) and Ehsan Hajsafi (36). Despite the creaking limbs of many within the squad, the Iranians will be confident of reaching the last 32 at the

the last 16. Many of the key performers