Igor Stimac, the Indian football team head coach, was sacked by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on June 17. The decision was taken after Stimac-led Indian side failed to make it to the third round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers. While Stimac was not pleased with the decision, he posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he will host a press conference where he would be making massive revelations regarding Indian football.
And now on Friday (June 21), Stimac has made some massive claims in this press conference. In an online conference in which there were a host of reporters from across the length and breadth of the country, Stimac alleged that Indian football was impriosned in the hands of a few power hungry people. He reckoned that the state of Indian football will not improve in the next two decades, if the state of affairs remain the same.
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"I came with an open heart to Indian football. But your football is imprisoned. It will take a couple of decades for things to improve which I don't see happening," Stimac said while addressing the media.
"Not surprised about parting ways. Most of my senior players knew I had decided to leave even after had qualified for the third round. It was impossible for me to go on without proper support, full of lies and people who had only private interests," he added.
No One In AIFF Knew How To Run Football: Stimac
Speaking in the same conference, Stimanc said that he was not in a position to take the stress of the Indian coaching job and even underwent a heart surgery before the Asian Cup. He alleged that no one was able to run Indian foootball in the AIFF.
"The people in AIFF don’t know how to run a football house, they don’t know how to organise cups. These people only care about power," Stimac said.
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"IM Vijayan was a fantastic player but he shouldn't be the one presiding over the technical committee (TC). I told the AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey that during each camp we should have one of the members of the TC to be in the team and see what kind of work we do and what we provide our players. You think they sent someone? No one was there," the 56-year-old Croatian said.