Team Melli coach Marc Wilmots, who is seeking terminate his contract with FFIRI due to non-payment of his salaries by the Football Federation, will arrive in Iran on Monday to take control of the training session of the squad.

It is quite possible that this will be the last time the fans will see the Belgian Wilmots accompanying Team Melli unless the FFIRI forks out his salary and respects the signed contract. Wilmots faces a similar situation that Carlos Queiroz and before him, Branko Ivankovic has faced coaching Team Melli. Iran football federation is a notorious bad paymaster and has always blamed sanctions for not paying its employees.

On Sunday, the selectors released a new squad list which had several changes from the previous list that played Cambodia and Bahrain. Belgian based players Kaveh Rezai and Ali Gholizadeh were called up for the first time by Marc Wilmots.

Vouria Ghafouri’s returns to the squad while defender Siavash Yazdani has been called up again after recovering from injury. Omid Noorafkan, who was invited as the 24th player on the previous Wilmots list, has not been called for Iraq match. Ashkan Dejageh Tractorsazi midfielder is out due to injury

One of the highlights of the list is the absence of the Portuguese based midfielder Mehrdad Mohammadi who played against Cambodia and Bahrain. Wilmots still has no positive opinion on English club Brighton’s outcast Alireza Jahanbakhsh because of the loss of form and his exclusion from Brighton’s squad. Mehdi Torabi, who has done well in Persepolis colours, has not been called up for the second time running. Persepolis, however, continue to have five players (Alireza Biranvand, Vahid Amiri, Ahmad Noorollahi, Mohammad Naderi and Hossein Kanani Zadegan) in the new roster and have the highest number of players in Team Melli.

Esteghlal and Tractorsazi Tabriz have 3 players each that is scheduled to face Iraq. Sepahan, with the omission of Omid Noorafkan and Morteza Mansouri, has only 2 players Piam Niazmand and Mohammad Mohebbi in the final list. Portuguese based striker Mehdi Taremi was also is on the list, is said to have suffered an injury and the possibility of losing the game to Iraq is quite likely.

Team Melli is facing Iraq this Thursday as FIFA decides to play change the venue from Basra to Amman in the wake of security concerns.