Bhaichung Bhutia Resigns from AIFF Technical Committee, Citing Bypassing of Panel in Coach Selection

On July 20, 2024, the Executive Committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), under the direction of President Kalyan Chaubey, gathered in New Delhi's Football House to discuss crucial issues. The selection of Manolo Marquez as the new head coach for the Indian men's national team was the most important move, and it is effective immediately. This comes after former coach Igor Stimac was sacked from the position last month.

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Former Indian Football Team captain Bhaichung Bhutia resigns from technical committee as AIFF "bypasses" the panel

Alleging that the panel was "bypassed" when selecting the national men's team head coach, legendary football player Bhaichung Bhutia on Saturday informed the executive committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) that he is quitting from his membership of the technical committee.

Currently overseeing Indian Super League team FC Goa, Spaniard Manolo Marquez was chosen India head coach on Saturday by the AIFF executive committee. He will surpass Croatian Igor Stimac, who was let go on June 17 following India's third-round World Cup qualifying failure.

Attended Saturday's meeting here, Bhutia, a co-opted member of the executive committee who is a former player, asserted that the technical committee advises the national team's head coach per usual policy. Legendary IM Vijayan leads the present technical panel.

"I have been chairman of AIFF technical committee in the past (2013 to 2017) and involved in coach appointments like in case of Stephen Constantine. It is the job of the technical committee to shortlist the candidates who have applied and recommend the suitable person to become coach. But this time, there was not even a single technical committee meeting to appoint successor of Stimac," Bhutia told PTI.

"There was not a single meeting of technical committee to discuss how many candidates have applied, who were to be shortlisted, nothing of this sort happened this time. The process was followed in the past but not this time. "If you are going to bypass the technical committee in the head coach appointment, why are we for. I said in the executive committee meeting that since the technical committee was not involved, there was no value of technical committee, then why are we for. So, I said I am resigning from technical committee membership."

 Bhutia said a special committee under AIFF vice president NA Haris was dealing with the matter of finding a successor to Stimac, and he was completely against it.

"I completely opposed the constitution of the special committee. There is a technical committee already in place and how come you formed a special committee to discuss the appointment of the coach.

"The process itself is wrong. The coaches are hired, fired and given extension by executive committee without having any discussion with the technical committee. The president proposes one or two names and the executive committee agrees to one." 

The other members of the AIFF technical committee include Shabir Ali, Climax Lawrence, Victor Amalraj and Santosh Singh, among others.

The AIFF said Vijayan attended the meeting via video conference.

When contacted, AIFF acting Secretary General M Satyanarayan also said Vijayan was consulted in the coach appointment process.

"There should not be any controversy here. I think technical committee chairman was consulted," Satyanarayan said. 

(With PTI inputs)