Indian football in mess; marred with politics: Bhaichung Bhutia

New Delhi: Indian legendary footballer and former national team captain Bhaichung Bhutia said on Tuesday that Indian football is a "mess" and it is marred with politics. He said that this politics is affecting the team's performance in recent international games, PTI reported.

"Indian football is in mess, there is politics in the sport," Bhutia said.

Talking about the Indian team's group stage exit in the AFC Asian Cup in Doha, Bhutia said, "Asian Games and Asian Cup are the two most important tournaments for India, and both were disasters, not due to players or coach but because of the AIFF top brass."

"In the Asian Games, the team played its first match just a few hours after landing in Hangzhou. In the Asian Cup, the team was not given adequate training time."

He demanded the resignation of All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey, holding him responsible for the issues in the body's administration. This was after the dismissal of the secretary general of the body, Shaji Prabhakaran, alleging a "breach of trust".

Bhutia attended Tuesday's executive committee meeting of the AIFF called here to discuss the dismissal of Prabhakaran on November 7. Prabhakaran was not initially invited to the meeting but joined it virtually.

"I told the executive committee members that Kalyan Chaubey and treasurer Kipa Ajay should also resign. Shaji Prabhakaran should not be made the only scapegoat. All three of them are equally responsible for making decisions without the approval of the executive committee," Bhutia told PTI.

"All three of them were taking the decisions, and If Shaji has to be removed, the president and treasurer should also be removed," said the legendary striker.

"…cutting out each other after little over one year of taking charge is not good. The national team has been left in the lurch during the Hangzhou Asian Games as well as in the Asian Cup, where there was inadequate training time for the team," he said.