India coach Stimac criticises AIFF's affairs, says drastic changes needed

Shortly after his team qualified for the AFC Asian Cup for the second time in a row, Indian football team head coach Igor Stimac criticized the messy state of affairs of the National Federation (AIFF).

The AIFF is currently being run by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) following the discovery that the federation led by Praful Patel has violated the National Sports Code.

Although due to third-party intervention, an immediate suspension by FIFA is out of cards, Stimac questioned the timing of the issue, which cast a shadow over India's eligibility for a prestigious tournament such as the AFC Asian Cup.

Referring to AIFF's current state of affairs Stimac asked, "For such an important tournament, was this the time to do this? Was anybody thinking how that could affect the dressing room and the players?"

"I am not getting into who is right and who is wrong. It is not my job. I am just talking about timing. At such an important time, such a thing is happening, is anyone normal?" "Nothing would have happened if they were waiting for three more weeks after having waited so many years," he said.

When asked about his future, the 54-year-old, whose contract has been extended till September, also minced no words.

"We had no time to talk about contracts. We don't even have a board. Nobody thought about how that drama could affect the players," the Croatian said.

Palestine's 4-0 win over the Philippines in the Group B match in Mongolia sealed India's qualification ahead of their final league match against Hong Kong on Tuesday. Stimac's team qualified for the final with a strong 4-0 win over Hong Kong, ending with three wins in Group D - their all-time best campaign.

Stimac pointed out that even though he had other offfer given to him, he came to India for a "less salary".

"The players are trying to save my job. I came here for less salary than what was my market price. I had offers from others for better-paid jobs than I saw in India. The coach was never the problem in this country, you should talk about other problems," he said.

"We look into the future where we want to be. We want to be in every Asian Cup and we also want to compete 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 must follow our motto," he said. India started its campaign with a 2-0 win over Cambodia and then secured a 2-1 last minute victory over Afghanistan. The icing on the cake came when they qualified as the group tops by beating table leaders Hong Kong 4-0.

Stimac has laid down his conditions for staying here, saying he wants to make the I-League the seedbed of Indian football.

"In the Indian Super League there is already the 3+1 rule. But we need to reduce foreigners altogether from the I-League going forward if we want to go forward," he said.

"I need players playing as strikers or forwards and centre-backs. I need reasons why there is a need for foreigners in the I-League. I'd give you 100 reasons why there is no need for foreigners in the I-League.

Some things will need to change drastically. In the future, if I am here, the league will need to stop when I say, for as many days as I think is needed for the national team to prepare to go higher," he said.

"And players who are chosen by us, they will have to play at the clubs… We are eight to 10 years late in our development programme — eight to 10 years behind the top eight Asian countries. How are we going to get there? So let's wake up," he signed off.

With inputs from PTI