Iran’s World Cup fate was sealed when Austria got a late equalizer against Algeria on Saturday. Despite having drawn all three of their Group Stage matches, Iran were made to wait until the final matches of the groups to see whether they had done enough to be one of the top eight third-placed teams to punch their ticket to the knockout stages. Iran came so close to reaching the knockout rounds of the World CupGettyUltimately, Team Melli were eliminated from the tournament on goal difference, with Senegal taking the final spot of the third-placed teams. While Iran were devastated by how their tournament unraveled, with manager Amir Ghalenoei declaring his side were the ‘most oppressed’ team at the World Cup, the United States of America were overjoyed. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was unafraid to make his feelings known about Iran’s exit from the World Cup when addressing reporters on Monday. “I’m just glad they’re done, and they’re not coming back,” Mullin said, via the Sports Business Journal. “I was so happy when we were able to pull their visas and said they could leave the U.S. soil, and I might’ve sung a song or two or maybe even danced a happy dance.”Mullin further added that he was “very happy they’re going back because there wasn’t a single team that we dealt with more than them.”Mullin is a well-known figure to the Iranian football team, due to him having made some defamatory accusations suggesting that the travelling party had attempted to sneak a person into the country that had direct ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. “Iranians are used to the mistreatment and lies of U.S. officials, so no one in Iran is surprised by these hostile remarks,” an FFIRI official said in response to Mullin’s new public comments, via The Athletic. “These remarks once again demonstrate that U.S. officials have no commitment to international law or the principles expected of a host nation capable of organizing a global sporting event.“The fact that he openly celebrates Iran’s elimination says far more about him than it does about our team. It reflects a level of pettiness that cannot even tolerate the presence of a football team competing on the world’s biggest stage.“After our match against New Zealand, our head coach said that the United States did not want Iran to remain in this tournament because of the inhumane and unprofessional treatment our team experienced. These latest comments only reinforce that belief.”Iran’s World Cup campaign was full of difficultyGettyFans of Iran show their support with flags during the FIFA World CupGettyControversy fueled Iran’s World Cup campaignIt had been a World Cup campaign riddled with controversy for the Middle Eastern outfit. Due to ongoing conflict between Iran and the USA, they were forced to move their training camp to tournament co-hosts Mexico, and faced extreme difficulty getting into the States, where all their group games were played. This came after a request submitted to FIFA to have all their games played in Mexico was rejected. They were only permitted to enter the US on a game-by-game basis – a huge detriment to their preparation process for their group games – and were ordered to leave immediately after. Then, Iranian winger Mehdi Torabi’s tournament was thrown into doubt due to his US visa having expired due to being issued only a single-entry visa, while his teammates were given multiple-entry visas. Ahead of their game against Belgium, Mullin further reiterated his previous statements that over half of Iran’s support staff were denied visas to enter the U.S. View Tweet: https://t.co/QXMaxmrtLT“We accepted 53 coming in,” he told Fox News. “The rest all had direct ties to the IRGC and aren’t their normal travelling group.“So these games that Iran plays makes them an adversary that you can’t trust,” he said, and added, “no-one knows that better” than President Donald Trump. “Everything that we do will be verified and not assumed.”Iran, at the time, called that accusation “false, fabricated and entirely baseless.”The FFIRI official also added, “When they kill 168 children and lie to the whole world about it, nothing this person says is surprising to any of us.”Stay up to date with the World Cup across all our talkSPORT platforms – subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest news, opinion, exclusive interviews and our daily unfiltered, unscripted show ‘The S* Word, from 8am ETAll 104 games at the 2026 World Cup will be live on talkSPORT, talkSPORT 2 and the talkSPORT app.