With less than a week remaining for the Persian Gulf League kick off, 3 notable Team Melli players are under the threat of suspensions.

Yaghoub Karimi , Shoja’a Khalilzadeh and Abolghasim Dehnavi are bring investigated by the football federation’s disciplinary committee for what is deemed as an act of deceptions and betrayal.  All the 3 players have signed contracts with Perspolis club and received partial payments , but subsequently , they also signed with Sepahan Esfahan club! Karimi & Khalilzadeh are still training with Sepahan , while Dehnavi  returned back to Perspolis after serving a temporarily suspension by the FFIRI.  All the three players have been named in the latest list by Carlos Queiroz for the training camp in Portugal.

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]assanzadeh , the Head of the FFIRI Disciplinary committee, was present in a meeting between Perspolis and Sepahan management in the aftermath of the two major clubs trading accusations and threatening legal action against each other. With the Federation being present as observer, the two clubs decided to end their conflict without involving the legal authorities and the federation. The players who received money after signing the initial contracts will have to return it back and any official complaints will be withdrawn. However , Hassanzadeh insisted that all the players involved will be liable to prosecution for what he labeled as “a blatant violation of confidence and written contract”. The head of the Disciplinary committee, said that such acts of betrayal spoils the good name of football in Iran and leads to conflicts within the relationship amongst individuals, or between individuals and organizations putting the name of football in disrepute.

There was no word on the nature of the punishment , although it is not normally customary for the FFIRI to pass heavy sentences in Iran. The players might be given two or three match suspension plus a nominal fine. Anything beyond that will be extremely unique in Iran’s football.