"The sooner he leaves this position...," Igor Stimac takes aim at AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey

The tactician criticized AIFF President for his role in the haphazard running of the federation.

Igor Stimac is furious with the way in which he was treated by the All India Football Federation in the final year of his five-year reign as the Indian head coach. The Croatian tactician saw his contract, which was initially set to expire in June 2026, terminated a few days after India’s 2-1 loss to Qatar in their final second round game in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

Stimac decided to air some of the ‘secrets’ that he kept with him and was unable to reveal publicly during the final few months of his stint. In a virtual press conference, the former Croatia international alleged that he was repeatedly lied to by the AIFF officials and especially by AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey.

He has accused them of failing to keep their promises. Infact, Stimac believes that Indian football will be in a better place once Chaubey is replaced as the AIFF President.

In a furious rant against the apex body’s head, he stated, “We have confirmation now that I shouldn’t have trusted these people earlier. From July (2023) when they promised to support the national team strongly and make sure everything is provided, there were only lies in promises. Nothing else. My fault was to trust them. I’m telling you that if I could go back, I would’ve left in July and shook hands with them and said goodbye. I wouldn’t trust them. I was not supposed to trust these people, they don’t know how to run football.

“Having a President whose most important thing is how many likes he has on social media and how to take pictures with famous football people rather than taking good care of his own situation is ridiculous. It’s quite clear that with his public media appearance he’s just trying to please those destructive people on social media that coach is giving excuses now.

“No, the coach is saying the truth. Not like you, coach is saying the truth form the first day in Indian football, you are the one who is lying at every matter and thinking about how to be popular and nothing else. That is sad for Indian football. The sooner he leaves this position, Indian football stands its chance to be better. It’s very simple,” he ended with.

Stimac seems to be especially furious about an interview given by Kalyan Chaubey after India’s loss to Qatar where the AIFF President questioned his ability as the India head coach and some of his decisions. The Croatian is refusing to back down from this fight after what he believes is an unprofessional way of terminating him from his job.

Also read: “When I received that letter I was in the hospital,” Igor Stimac on heart surgery before Asian Cup

He has already vowed to potentially take the AIFF to court unless they are able to pay him the remainder of his salary (for his contract that was supposed to run till June 2026). Chaubey or anyone from the AIFF are yet to give a response to these fiery comments.

Reacting to media reports surrounding Stimac‘s comments, the AIFF issued a statement on Friday evening, saying, “It has come to our attention that former India men’s team head coach Igor Stimac has made certain remarks in the media pertaining to functioning of the All India Football Federation and some of its senior officials. The AIFF will issue a statement in this regards in the next 48 hours.”

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