Back in 2013, the wife of South Korea’s national team coach, Choi Kang-hee, complained that having three weeks of solid drinking with officials, journalists and sponsors was making her husband ill. That’s nothing; Igor Stimac’s parting shot after five years as India’s head coach was to accuse the All India Football Federation (AIFF) of making his life so difficult that he needed heart surgery. There have been a few rough breakups in football, but this particular one has resulted in legal threats and a 1,500-word rebuttal statement.
Stimac was fired on 17 June. On his way out, the 56-year-old former Croatia international jumped into a press conference with the kind of robust challenge that West Ham and Derby fans of a certain age will remember well, telling Indian reporters that their football had been “imprisoned” by an AIFF which he claimed was more interested in looking good than actually improving anything. “The sooner Kalyan Chaubey leaves, the better it will be for Indian football,” Stimac said on 21 June. “The president of the AIFF gets pictures with people in important positions just for social media attention.”
It was explosive stuff. Stimac went on to list all the ways he felt he had not been supported in his job, revealing that last December he became “stressed” after his attempts to convince his bosses that World Cup qualifiers in March and June were more important than January’s Asian Cup did not go down well in Delhi. “No one knows this, I finished in the hospital,” Stimac said. “I was disturbed with everything going on; stressed from the obvious problems. I had an immediate surgery on my heart.”
The AIFF responded to the allegations by insisting they were “made with the sole intent of maligning the AIFF and showing its personnel in poor light”, adding that they showed that its decision to dismiss Stimac was the right one. “He has irresponsibly blamed the AIFF for causing his heart ailment,” read a statement, “attempting to deflect the serious matter of his not having been medically fit to render coaching services and his failure to formally disclose the same to the AIFF.”
How did it come to this? Results, mainly. The relationship has been fractious at times and Stimac is far from the first coach who can be abrasive and vocal, but when things are going well on the pitch, not many mind. Last year was mostly a good one, with the team breaking into the top 100 and winning the South Asian title. Hopes were high heading into 2024, but whether the AIFF wanted the Asian Cup prioritised or not, or whether Stimac was far too focused on World Cup qualifiers, neither side could have been happy with the outcome.
Under Stephen Constantine in 2019, India went to the Asian Cup and beat Thailand 4-1 to secure one of the country’s best ever results. and with a minute of the group stage remaining the Blue Tigers were through to the knockout rounds before conceding a late goal. Come this year’s tournament, however, in what was admittedly a tough group containing Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria, India finished bottom, pointless and goalless.
At least there was a quick opportunity to bounce back in March’s World Cup qualifiers. The second round, from which the top two teams from the nine groups of four progress to the next stage, had started well, with India beating Kuwait, past Asian champions, 1-0 the previous November. It was a great result, especially as, with Qatar expected to top the group and Afghanistan set for fourth, it set India on course for second place and an historic advancement. That was expected to be virtually confirmed in March by taking six points against Afghanistan. Instead, they managed just one.
There was still time to recover. A home win against Kuwait in the penultimate game at the start of last month would have been enough, but instead the visitors left Kolkata with all three points. A final game defeat at the hands of an already qualified Qatar meant Kuwait stole second and India fell to third. Stimac, who had said in March that he would resign if he did not deliver the third round, was fired days later.
Those who believed reports from September last year that claimed Stimac used the help of an astrologer to select his squads may have concluded that he should have seen all of this coming. Indeed the AIFF brought that up in its statement, saying it was “shocked to note his dependence on an astrologer to determine player’s call-ups, team selections and took immediate necessary action to end the same”. Stimac labelled such claims a “disgrace” at the time, adding: “I rely on my work, I rely on my knowledge and I rely on what I see on the training pitch from my players. I will explain all that in detail because, obviously, in recent times, some people in India are trying to discredit all my work, which has been done and executed perfectly, with some false accusations.” ,
It may be hard to ever know what really happened, though public opinion in India does generally not seem that sorry to see Stimac go. What’s for sure is that he should have been one of 18 coaches attending the third-round World Cup-qualification draw in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Instead he is waiting to see if he will get his contract – extended last year to June 2026 – paid in full. The AIFF has offered a severance package of three months’ salary. Legal action has been threatened in return and this mess could drag on for a while yet. One thing’s for sure: Stimac’s claims do not seem to have had much impact on the India vacancy; there were a reported 214 applications for the job in the first seven days after it was advertised.
