Bhutia resigns from AIFF technical committee over India coach appointment

'If you are going to bypass the technical committee in the head coach appointment, why are we here?'

Legendary Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia on Saturday told the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) executive committee that he is resigning from his membership of the technical committee, alleging that the panel was "bypassed" while appointing the national men's team head coach.

Spaniard Manolo Marquez, who is currently in charge of Indian Super League side FC Goa, was on Saturday named India head coach by the AIFF executive committee. He will succeed Croatian Igor Stimac, who was sacked on June 17 after India failed to qualify for the third round of 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Bhutia, who is a co-opted member of the executive committee as a former player and attended Saturday's meeting in New Delhi, claimed that under normal practice, the technical committee recommends the head coach of the national team. The current technical panel is headed by legendary IM Vijayan.

"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 here? 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.