A storm of controversy marked the conclusion of Igor Stimac’s turbulent term as head coach of the Indian football team. After being fired, Stimac attacked the All India Football Federation (AIFF) vehemently once more, charging them with stunting the development of Indian football.
Stimac said at a press conference on Friday that he was extremely frustrated with the AIFF. He declared that “Indian football is imprisoned” and blamed the team’s lackluster results on the federation. He criticized the AIFF for what he saw as its over-reliance on social media popularity rather than practical development tactics.
“The people in AIFF don’t know how to run a football house; they don’t know how to organise cups. These people only care about power,” he said during the live interaction with select media.
“The people in Football House run it only thinking what social media will think . There’s no other objective for those people. Not the way to run an institution. I came here with an open heart to Indian football, but your football is imprisoned. It will take a couple of decades to improve, and I don’t see that happening,” he added.
Within the Indian football community, controversy has been raised by Stimac’s remarks. While some of his followers share his worries with the AIFF’s management, others have doubts about the strategies and players he chose throughout his five-year tenure.
He also made an unexpected assertion in his farewell speech: the Indian Super League (ISL) teams’ scouting systems were the only ones available to the national squad. The infrastructure for scouting in Indian football has come under scrutiny in light of this disclosure.
“We had to share scouting platforms from FC Goa – Wyscout and all. That was our situation,” the former India coach said.
According to Stimac’s statement, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) may not have enough resources available to identify talent.
This deficiency might result from financial limitations or a lack of personnel committed to national team scouting.
Igor Stimac further disclosed that the stress he was underworking as an Indian football coach required heart surgery.
“After I told them that the World Cup Qualifiers were more important than Asian Cup. I received final warning from AIFP. When I received the final warning on December 2. no one knows this, I finished in the hospital. I was disturbed with everything going on; stressed from the obvious problems. I had an immediate surgery on my heart. I wasn’t ready to speak to anyone or find excuses. I was ready to put myself on the line to prepare my team for the Asian Cup to give the best shot,” the Croatian revealed in the press conference.
