Kolkata: Igor Stimac repents not to have left the Indian football team earlier but insists that despite getting sacked he isn’t leaving an angry man though his parting shot was all about taking potshots at the All India Football Federation.
The Croat is involved in an exit dispute with the AIFF over amount of compensation and took the opportunity in a media interaction to highlight the “web of lies” and “failed promises” that he had to endure during his five year tenure.
Playing the victim card to the hilt, he also dismissed talks of being influenced by players for selections and giving the senior members of the team too much say in crucial decisions.
“There is no anger in me as I am not surprised to part ways. Even some of my senior players knew that I would leave even if India qualified for third round,” Stimac said on Friday.
“I had said publicly that I had three captains Sunil (Chhetri), Gurpreet (Sandhu) and Sandesh (Jhingan). I had meetings with them to hear their opinions. But I was the only one taking decisions about the team. So forget about it,” he said when asked about player power within the team.
He failed to deliver on his promise of guiding India to the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time but refused to be accountable for it, saying he could only do so much without “proper support”, “listening to lies” and people prioritising own interests over the national team.
‘Lies’
Upon being served a termination letter on Monday, which was a “suprise” as he claimed to have sought time till the end of June to get a new job as he in entertaining two offers, Stimac listed the number of time the federation failed to meet his demands and went back on promises that eventally harmed the team’s on-field performance.
“There was no mutual trust but I stayed on as didn’t want to betray my boys so didn’t leave even though I should have left aftet the SAFF final in 2023,” he said.
“I shouldn’t have trusted the people that run the AIFF. They told lies, sold big dreams but didn’t follow up on promises. My fault was to trust these AIFF people.”
AIFF terminates the services of Head Coach Igor Stimac!
Read more details here 👉🏻 https://t.co/oHZpY9tr7T#IndianFootball ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/fupnL5UrVS
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) June 17, 2024
AIFF’s problems, which he had mailed as part of his reply to his termination letter, begins at the very top, with a president who only “thinks of how many clicks he gets on social media”, he said.
“The sooner Kalyan Chaubey leaves AIFF, the better for Indian football. He is a populist and is only concerned about taking pictures with influential football people.
“He doesn’t have any political power and no one knows him in the streets (despite coming into AIFF with political support). I had no relationship with Kalyan.”
No way back now
The 1998 World Cup bronze medal winner reckoned AIFF’s biggest success during his time was to keep me quiet through showcause letters, in one of which he was termed a “liability” for his plainspeaking ways.
As he claimed to have been sacked for the first time in his managerial career, Stimac said his reputation has taken a beating whoch is why he doesn’t want to re-engage with the AIFF and would wait 10 days before filing a lawsuit at the FIFA tribunal.
“My lawyer is looking into it. Will wait 10 days before lodging my complain. The AIFF is probably panicking and seeking help from its marketing partner to give compensation that is money for my full tenure till Une 2026,” the former defender said after refusing to accept AIFF’s offer of three months salary as compensation.
“I had told to gve me time till the end of June as I am negotiating two potential offers and once I get a job, they wouldn’t have to pay me compensation but they sacked me the next day.”
Now he would wait till the conclusion of the ongoing Euro 2024 before taking his next career step but warned that not much would happen in Indian football if incompetent people like Chaubey and technical committee chairperson IM Vijayan is at the helm at the AIFF and “cricket people” running ISL.
“Vijayan is wonderful player but doesn’t have personality to be chairperson of technical committee. The ISL has given many things to Indian football like good salary to players and decent pitches. But what type of league doesn’t have relegation, that too for so long?
“The ISL should be run by football people, not by cricket people. FSDL (AIFF’s marketing partner who runs the top-tier league) needs to take responsibility for it.
Unless these things don’t change, nothing significant would happen in Indian football as Stimc pointed out that only the national team’s sucess and not club’s could take the country forward.
“New coach will have same problems and as long as the AIFF doesn’t change, Indian football will remain imprisoned.”
Sacked national team head coach Igor Stimac said the sooner president Kalyan Chaubey leaves AIFF the better for Indian football. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
