After leading the Indian men’s football team to successive AFC Asian Cup qualifications, head coach Igor Stimac took a jibe at the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and their poor position.
The AIFF is currently run by a Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) after the Praful Patel-led federation violated national rules. Play code.
While an immediate suspension by FIFA due to third-party interference is out of the cards, Stimac questioned the timing of the issue, when he and his team were trying to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup.
Would be nice to play AFC Asian Cup in front of fans at home: Sunil Chhetri
“For such an important tournament, was it time to do this? Was anyone wondering how this might affect the dressing room and the players? Stimac asked, referring to the current situation at AIFF.
He said, ‘I am not understanding who is right and who is wrong. it is not my business. I’m just talking about timing. In such critical times, this is happening, is there anything normal?”
“If they had waited three more weeks after waiting for so many years, nothing would have happened,” he said.
The 54-year-old, whose contract has been extended till September, also did not say a word when asked about his future.
“We didn’t have time to talk about contracts. We don’t even have a board. No one thought how this play could affect the players,” said the Croatian.
India’s qualification was sealed on Tuesday ahead of their final league match against Hong Kong when Palestine registered a 4-0 win against the Philippines in a Group B game in Mongolia.
Sunil Chhetri scores his 84th international goal: A deep dive into his record-breaking tally
Stimac’s side celebrated their qualification with an emphatic 4–0 win over Hong Kong later in the day as it finished with three wins to top Group D – their best campaign to date.
Stimac further explained that he had come India For “low pay” when he had several offers on hand.
“The players are trying to save my job. I came here on salary less than my market value. I had offers from others for jobs with better pay than what I saw in India. Coaches were never the problem in this country, you should talk about other problems,” he said.
“We look to the future where we want to be. We want to be in every Asian Cup and we also want to compete vigorously for World Cup qualifiers, that was clearly stated at the beginning of my tenure,” Stimac said.
Be it AIFF or Govt. Beware of Indian National Team. We represent India, if the country has the ambition to think where we can be, they should follow our motto.”
India began their campaign with a 2–0 win over Cambodia and then a 2–1 win over Afghanistan. The icing on the cake came when they defeated table leaders Hong Kong 4-0 to qualify as group toppers.