New Delhi: Former India head coach Igor Stimac will reportedly receive $400,000 (approx. Rs. 3.36 crore) from the All India Football Federation (AIFF) as a settlement payment. This marks a rare event of getting the compensation for termination which was claimed to be without a cause. Stimac last coached the Indian national football team during the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the AFC Asian Cup 2027 group-stage fixtures.
An AIFF official confirmed the development to Hindustan Times (HT) who wanted to remain anonymous for not being allowed to speak to the media. He was once to receive an extension for one tournament on the condition that India make it to the quarter-final of the Asian Cup, an event for which the team never qualified for successive editions and was placed last in the group when they qualified in 2011 and 2015.
The development means that 57-year-old Stimac will leave Indian football on his terms. He will also become the first Indian coach to be compensated after claiming that he was terminated without any cause. The federation will now have to pay Stimac in a season for which the competitions’ budget has already been cut short by eary Rs. 20 crores. This was one of the reasons why Manolo Marquez was brought in as the new head coach of the senior men’s team and FC Goa.
Salary negotiations
The report also stated how the things between Stimac and AIFF fared out in terms of negotiations which the two did over phone calls and emails. He was sacked on June 27 after India failed to make it to the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. AIFF offered Stimac a three-month salary as compensation which he refused. He went to FIFA last month with a claim of $920,000 (approx. Rs. 7.72 crores) which was his two-year salary.
AIFF still continued the negotiations with deputy secretary-general Satyanarayan Muthyalu and new secretary-general Anilkumar Prabhakaran getting into action. The Croatian further turned down salary offers of five and 10 months. HT also accessed the correspondence between Stimac and AIFF which pointed out that as per his contract, AIFF was to pay him $30,000 (nearly Rs. 25.19 lakh) per month till June 2025 and $40,000 (approx. Rs. 33.6 lakh) each month for a year following that.
“In my last email, I clearly stated that I am ready to accept 50% of the amount ($460,000) if all is paid until September 1, 2024,” Stimac wrote in August last week. In the same email, he mentioned a “last proposal” of $400,000.
AIFF’s reply
The federation replied saying that they would need approval from the finance and the executive committee. The officials helming the negotiations then asked Stimac if he would agree on $350,000, quoting “as you are aware of our financial situation.” Stimac refused again and wrote, “I am quite convinced that the human side of my personality has been shown when I decided to make it much easier for you reducing my demand from $920,000 to $400,000.”
“I am quite sure no coach in the world would do the same after being treated so badly by the AIFF president,” Stimac said. The AIFF finally agreed to Stimac’s demand saying that he had been fair in the negotiations. An executive committe member of the AIFF said that the payout was approved at a virtual meeting on Wednesday and the documents were signed by Stimac on Friday, which was also his birthday.
Igor Stimac will reportedly receive an amount of $400,000 from All India Football Federation (AIFF) after being sacked as the head coach of Indian national football team. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
