Foolad Sepahan coach Zlatko Kranjcar has threatened that he will stop his players from joining Team Melli camp a result of Queiroz ignoring the club’s request for a coordination meeting.
The root of the problem lies in the insistence e of Queiroz to have full control on players, requiring the selected Team Melli players to be fully available and committed for the camps or friendly matches while clubs such as Sepahan will be involved in Asian Champions League next year.

The Croat coach , Zlatko Kranjcar said that “Sepahan has accumulated 200 points on its own and that was the deciding factor in AFC awarding 4 places for Iran in the next Asian Champions league to Iran. This competition is very important for us and is a good source of revenue. We have asked FFIRI several times for a coordination meeting with Team Melli technical staff to sort out a program , but they have ignored our requests.”

Queiroz announced in his Sunday meeting that ” if Iran wants success in the World Cup , all the decisions regarding the players must be taken by him (Queiroz)”. That statement infuriated the coaches of the 4 Iranian clubs taking part in this current Asian Champions league as the clubs will be deprived on their best players and hence their chances of qualifying will be seriously threatened. Krancjar has also taken an exception on Queiroz statements which the Croat thinks of as undermining the role of the clubs coaches on their players.

Krancjar added “All the World Cup teams have players who would be playing the Champions League. I don’t see anyone of them holding their players because they will be playing in the World Cup. Anyway, playing in such a high level competition will only lead to improve their readiness and competitive edge for Team Melli.”

The tension between Queiroz and Kranjcar has been on the rise lately.