Bhaichung Bhutia
Spain’s Manolo Marquez has become the new coach of the Indian football team. He has replaced Igor Stimac. Legendary footballer Baichung Bhutia has told the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Executive Committee that he is resigning from the membership of the Technical Committee, accusing the panel of being ignored in the appointment of the head coach of the national men’s team. Baichung Bhutia, co-opted member of the Executive Committee as a former player, attended Saturday’s meeting.
Baichung Bhutia has previously been the chief of the technical committee
Baichung Bhutia claimed that generally the technical committee recommends the head coach of the national team. The current technical panel is headed by veteran IM Vijayan. Bhutia told PTI that I have been the chief of the AIFF Technical Committee before (from 2013 to 2017) and have been involved in coach appointments in the case of Stephen Constantine. The job of the technical committee is to shortlist the candidates who apply and recommend a suitable person to become the coach. But this time not a single meeting of the technical committee was held to appoint Stimac’s successor.
He said that not a single meeting of the technical committee was held to discuss how many candidates have applied, who has been shortlisted. Nothing like this happened this time. This process was followed earlier also, but not this time. If you are going to bypass the technical committee in the appointment of the head coach then why are we for this. I had said in the executive committee meeting that since the technical committee was not involved, the technical committee had no importance. So what are we for. I said that I am resigning from the membership of the technical committee.
Bhutia termed the process itself as wrong
Bhutia said that a special committee headed by AIFF vice-president NA Harris was looking for Igor Stimac’s successor and he was completely against it. He said, “I completely opposed the formation of the special committee. A technical committee already exists and how did you form a special committee to discuss the appointment of a coach?” Bhutia said that the process itself is wrong. Coaches are appointed, removed and their tenure is extended by the executive committee without any discussion with the technical committee. The president proposes one or two names and the executive committee agrees on one.
Other members of the AIFF technical committee include Shabbir Ali, Climax Lawrence, Victor Amalraj and Santosh Singh. The AIFF said that Vijayan attended the meeting via video conference. When contacted, AIFF Acting General Secretary M Satyanarayana also said that Vijayan was consulted in the coach’s appointment process. Satyanarayana said that there should be no controversy in this. I think the chairman of the technical committee was consulted.
(Input: PTI)
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