Bhaichung Bhutia weighs in on OCI issue for Indian Football Team

AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey revealed to be considering OCIs for the Indian Football Team.

Indian Football team‘s recent losses to Hong Kong and Thailand have fired up the demands from fans to allow OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) for the Blue Tigers. With the Indian side not being able to score a goal in their last three competitive matches, fans are hopeful that allowing OCI players can help the Blue Tigers get a clinical foreign forward to spearhead the frontline for them.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) president, Kalyan Chaubey, recently gave a promising update on the OCI situation. He hinted that the AIFF has had positive talks with the government officials to allow OCI players to represent the Indian football team in the near future.

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In fact, Chaubey even indicated that the AIFF had had conversations with 33 OCI players who have shown a willingness to play for the Blue Tigers. This has been strongly refuted by former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia, who has been a strong critic of the AIFF president over the last few months.

Bhutia spoke about the OCI factor in a recent press meet, where he claimed: “OCI players is a topic since a long time. Even during my playing days, when we played the Asian Cup, Michael Chopra, who played in the Premier League, trained with us. Even Stephen Constantine had approached for the same.

“But let Kalyan show the names of the 33 OCI players who are in contact with them. Let him show some email or something else in the public domain. He has done nothing in the last three years to bring OCI players. This is just a stunt from him recently after India’s downfall.

“But again OCI players are very important. The government of India will most likely show a green light to OCI players as they are planning to even host the Olympics, Asian Cup.”

Bhutia’s revelation that the Indian government planning to give a green light to OCI players will come as a boost for Indian football fans. If this is approved, then the Blue Tigers could potentially have players like Blackburn Rovers defender Danny Batth and Hearts player Yan Dhanda play for them in the future.

The Indian football team will be back in action in September (2025), when they play the next set of their 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against Singapore.

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