Team Melli head coach, Carlos Queiroz left Tehran to Lisbon, without signing a contract extension after the expiry of the current one with FFIRI.

In the media at least, the FFIRI hierarchy have expressed their confidence that the Portuguese coach  will sign on the dotted line to extend his contract until the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019. This would have been a six month extension while Queiroz has been demanding a 4 year contract.

After the highly succesful performance in the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, the second tournament that Queiroz has succeeded to qualify with Iran, it was believed that Queiroz will focus on negotiation with the Football Federation on his contract, but instead, the Team Melli head coach spent most of his time and energy in trash talking and attacking the Persepolis coach in a repeat performance of the last few months. He has also been highly critical of the federation administrators and lack of support for Team Melli from the government.

No official announcement has been published by the FFIRI on the subject