Indian football legend Bhaichung Bhutia has said that he is resigning from his membership of the technical committee while alleging that the panel was "bypassed" while appointing the Indian men's team's coach.
All India Football Federation named Spanish professional manager Manolo Marquez as the new head coach of the team who comes in for Croatian Igor Stimac. Bhutia has alleged that the technical committee recommended a coach which was not the case this time.
"I have been chairman of the AIFF technical committee in the past (2013 to 2017) and involved in coach appointments like in the case of Stephen Constantine. It is the job of the technical committee to shortlist the candidates who have applied and recommend a suitable person to become a coach. But this time, there was not even a single technical committee meeting to appoint a successor to Stimac," Bhutia told PTI.
He alleged that the process was followed in the past but not this time. "There was not a single meeting of a 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 the technical committee, so why are we for? So, I said I am resigning from technical committee membership," Bhutia added.
He said that a special committee under AIFF Vice President NA Haris was dealing with the hot topic of who will become the upcoming coach and he was 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 extensions by the executive committee without having any discussion with the technical committee. The president proposes one or two names and the executive committee agrees to one," he added.
Notably, AIFF acting Secretary General M Satyanarayan said the technical committee was consulted. "There should not be any controversy here. I think technical committee chairman was consulted," Satyanarayan said.
