The Indian football team’s head coach, Igor Stimac, has lashed out at the messy state of affairs at the National Federation (AIFF) a day after his side qualified for the AFC Asian Cup for the second time in a row. The AIFF is currently headed by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Trustees (CoA) after it was found that the Praful Patel-led federation had violated the National Sports Code. While an immediate ban by FIFA due to the intervention of a third party is no longer possible, Stimac has questioned the timing of the matter, which cast a shadow over India’s qualification to a prestigious tournament like the AFC Asian Cup.
“For such an important tournament, was this the time to do this? Has anyone thought how that might affect the dressing room and the players?” Stimac asked, referring to the current state of affairs at AIFF.
“I’m not going to talk about who is right and who isn’t. It’s not my job. I’m just talking about timing. At such an important moment something like this happens, is anyone normal?” “Nothing would have happened if they had waited three more weeks after waiting so many years,” he said.
The 54-year-old, whose contract has been extended until September, was also not shocked when asked about his future.
“We didn’t have time to talk about contracts. We don’t even have a board. Nobody has thought about the consequences of that drama for the players,” said the Croat.
India’s qualification was sealed ahead of their final league game against Hong Kong on Tuesday, when Palestine took a 4-0 win against the Philippines in a Group B match in Mongolia. Stimac’s side celebrated qualifying with an emphatic 4-0 win over Hong Kong later in the day, when it ended with three Group D wins – their best campaign ever.
Stimac further pointed out that he came to India for a “less salary” when he had several offers in hand.
“The players are trying to save my job. I came here for less salary than my market price. I got offers from others for better paying jobs than I saw in India. The coach was never the problem in this country, you need to 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 fight strongly for the World Cup qualifiers, which was clearly said at the beginning of my term,” Stimac said.
“Be it AIFF or the government. Beware of the Indian national team. We represent India, if there are ambitions in the country to think where we can be, they should follow our motto,” he said. India started their campaign with a 2-0 win over Cambodia, then secured a last-gasp 2-1 win over Afghanistan. The icing on the cake came when they brushed aside table leaders Hong Kong 4-0 to qualify as group stoppers.
Stimac further explained his terms for staying here and said he would like to make the I-League a breeding ground for Indian football.
“In the Indian Super League there is already the 31 rule. But if we want to move forward, we have to reduce the number of foreigners from the I-League,” he said.
“I need players who play as strikers or strikers and central defenders. I need reasons why foreigners are needed in the I-League. I would give you 100 reasons why foreigners are not needed in the I-League.”
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“Some things will have to change drastically. In the future, when I’m here, the competition will have to stop if I say, for as many days as I think it takes to prepare the national team to go higher,” he said. . †
“And players chosen by us will have to play at the clubs… We’re eight to 10 years late in our development program — eight to 10 years behind the top eight Asian countries. There? So let’s wake up.” he signed off.
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