Tehran  - Iran's top and popular football star, Ali Karimi, is on the verge of dismissal from his club Persepolis Tehran after voicing renewed criticism of the country's sports officials, local media reported Saturday.

The former Bayern Munich midfielder was dismissed last year from the national team after harshly criticizing the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) and describing its current formation as the weakest in his ten-year spell in the national team, bringing Iranian football backwards rather than forward.