Trevor Noah Praises Iran’s World Cup Team, Criticizes Media Double Standards Toward Arab and African Teams
June 30, 2026
Trevor Noah just exposed the rotten core of international sports journalism. While the world watched the World Cup, the mainstream media was busy playing geopolitical games, utilizing textbook double standards to diminish Arab and African teams.
Noah rightly commended the Iranian team, highlighting what the media completely ignored: the sheer psychological weight these players carried. They had to endure severe political crackdowns, threats to their safety, and brutal public pressure just to step onto that pitch and play.
It is the same old colonial mindset wrapped up in a sports broadcast.
Trevor said what needed to be said. The global south isn’t just participating; they are dominating despite the psychological warfare of the media.
Courtesy of @whatnowpodcast
#fifa #WorldCup #MediaBias #DoubleStandards #Iranfootballteam
English Script:
Trevor Noah: Why is it that African teams and Middle Eastern teams have to answer for what their governments and countries are doing, but then European teams don’t have to do this?
Unknown person: What happened?
Trevor Noah: The Iranian team, shout out to the Iranian team. We’re not talking about Iran, the country, or the regime or anyone. Those players had so much respect. They played the game with integrity. They didn’t do any crazy s***. They were flying in every single day. Every single day, they had to fly to another country to play a game. And they had customs and immigration every time they flew in, they were searched every single time. It was hours and hours before they could play the game. They come in, they play the game, they treat everyone with respect. They’re not flying around doing like wrestling moves like the Uruguayan team who got pissed off when they were losing against Spain.
Unknown person: Competed fairly.
Trevor Noah: Yeah. They played like a fair solid game. A fair solid game. And still every press conference afterwards, they don’t get asked questions about the game. The media keeps trying to trap them into saying something controversial. “What do you think of what’s happening in the streets of…?” The guy’s like, “Yo, bro, I’m a footballer. I’m here to talk about football.” But they don’t ask this of any of the American players, right? They don’t ask the Canadian players, “What do you think about the North America trade agreement that might be falling apart?” They don’t ask them about that.
