Top 4 talking points from AIFF’s reply to Igor Stimac’s accusations
Former Indian national football team head coach Igor Stimac arranged for a press conference on June 21 where he lashed out against the AIFF and its president Kalyan Chaubey. The Croatian made several allegations against the federation.
Soon after the video went viral on social media, the federation's media team responded by stating they would come out with a statement in a few days. Today (June 24), the AIFF put out a statement, responding to each of the allegations made by Stimac.
In this article, we will look at some of the important points from the same.
#1 Blame game on former secretary general
A few days after AIFF terminated Stimac's contract, a report came out on Sportstar, where AIFF Technical Committee head IM Vijayan claimed that the head coach's contract renewal last year came against the recommendations of the committee.
However, today's statement mentioned that the issue of his contract renewal came up in October, the core committee led by NA Haris had met in advance and proposed to the federation that the Croatian could be offered a two-year contract with a monthly salary of $30,000, starting from January 2024. The committee even asked the legal team to finalize the contract and keep a termination clause favorable to the AIFF.
Post this, the then secretary general (Shaji Prabhakaran) and legal consulted negotiated and handed Stimac a deal worth $30,000 monthly from February 2024 to January 2025, and $40,000 from February 2025 to January 2026 (without the core committee's approval for the said amount).
Moreover, the termination clause that AIFF wanted in their favor was not put into place. The contract was signed by the then secretary general and Igor Stimac.
#2 AIFF claims that coach's statement on GPS equipment is misleading
The Indian football team's GPS equipment was lost during the team's travel from New Delhi to Hangzhou, China, in September 2023. The federation made multiple attempts to recover them but with no fruits yielded, the stakeholders had to order new equipments. These arrived in India in March 2024.
Stimac raised the issue in the press conference by saying that the players were training without GPS vests for over 200 days.
The AIFF in its statement has agreed that the national team trained for a long time without GPS vests but it is only for 50 days of training and matches and that the allegation made by Stimac is misleading and exaggerated.
#3 Misinterpretation by Stimac on the continental stage
In the third AFC National Coaches Conference, which was held from May 7-9 in Malaysia, Igor Stimac represented India at the event. Coaches from other member associations and AFC officials were also present.
The AIFF has stated that Stimac publicly mentioned that he had a support staff of only four people. Naturally, this raised eyebrows.
The federation has now clearly mentioned that Stimac had a coaching team of 13-16 people for every camp. Moreover, during the AFC Asian Cup, an extra goalkeeper coach and a free-kick specialist (Trevor Sinclair) were added to the contingent too. The AIFF has also emphasized that they have always adhered to Stimac's demands and that these sympathy-gaining comments have caused harm to the reputation of India, Indian football, and the federation.
#4 No formal communication from Stimac about heart surgery
Igor Stimac had also revealed in the press conference that he had undergone heart surgery before the AFC Asian Cup. The former tactician has also blamed the AIFF for this.
The AIFF has, however, pointed out in its statement that the Croatian has irresponsibly blamed the federation for his heart ailment. Moreover, the AIFF claimed that no formal notice was made to them about it.