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Legendary footballer Bhaichung Bhutia on Saturday told the All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee that he will resign as a member of the technical committee and claimed that the committee was “bypassed” in the appointment of the head coach of the national men’s football team.Spaniard Manolo Marquez, who currently coaches Indian Super League side FC Goa, was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team by the executive committee of the All India Football Federation on Saturday.He will replace Croatian Igor Stimac, who was sacked on June 17 after India failed to qualify for the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Bhutia, a former player who has been inducted as an executive committee member and attended Saturday’s meeting, claimed that it was customary for the technical committee to recommend the head coach for the national team. The current technical panel is led by legendary international coach Vijayan.
“I had chaired the All India Football Federation’s technical committee (from 2013 to 2017) and was involved in coaching appointments like that of Stephen Constantine. The job of the technical committee is to screen the candidates who apply and recommend the right person for the post of coach. But this time, not even a technical committee meeting was held to appoint Stimatz’s successor,” Bhutia told PTI.
“The technical committee did not hold a single meeting to discuss how many candidates had applied and who would be shortlisted, that did not happen this time. That procedure was followed in the past but not this time. “If you are going to bypass the technical committee to appoint the head coach, why should we support it. I said in the executive committee meeting that since the technical committee is not involved, the technical committee has no value, so why should we support it. So, I said I am resigning as a member of the technical committee.” Bhutia said a special committee under All India Football Federation vice-president NA Haris was handling the issue of finding Stimac’s successor and he was completely against it.
“I am totally against setting up a special committee. There is already a technical committee, why do you need to set up a special committee to discuss the appointment of the coach?”
“The process itself was wrong. The hiring, firing and contract renewal of the coach was decided by the executive committee without any discussion with the technical committee. The chairman proposed one or two names and the executive committee agreed to one of them.” Other members of the AIF’s technical committee include Shabbir Ali, Clemax Lawrence, Victor Amarraj and Santosh Singh, among others.
The All India Football Federation said Vijayan participated in the meeting via video conferencing.
When contacted, All India Football Federation acting secretary general M Satyanarayan also said that Vijayan was consulted during the coaching appointment process.
“There should not be any controversy here. I think the technical committee chairman has been consulted,” Satyanarayan said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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