All India Football Federation Offer Igor Stimac A Fresh Contract
All India Football Federation Offer Igor Stimac A Fresh Contract: If Igor Stimac can lead the Men’s team to a quarter-final match at the end of the Asian Cup, he will continue to coach the team. In case he doesn’t, he will be replaced.
The AIFF is likely to discuss contract negotiations with Luka Modrić, the former Croatian World Cup winner currently in Kolkata, India where the national team will camp before heading to Vietnam. Before this time the negotiation will be taken up further.
The decision was taken during the second Executive Committee Meeting of the AIFF’s new dispensation, led by Kalyan Chaubey and Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran.
Prabhakaran said that the technical committee led by IM Vijayan decided to renew his contract until the Asian Cup and it was approved by the Union today. The performance target is top-eight in the competition. If that goal is achieved, then automatically the contract will be extended to another competition whichever is the priority for AIFF, he concluded.
AIFF has made it clear that they would not like to continue with Stimac beyond the Asia Cup. Even if they wanted more time, they wouldn’t have given him such a target (a set deadline).
However, while speaking about this recent decision, Prabhakaran said it was “the technical committee’s decision and is endorsed by the executive committee.”
India qualified this year by finishing first in the group, their first-ever Asian Cup qualification. The third round of Asia’s qualification competition marked India’s fifth consecutive appearance with Sunil Chhetri leading them to victory over UAE.
It is worth noting that, barring 1964 when it was a four-team competition, the Blue Tigers which are ranked 104th in the world and 19th in Asia never progressed beyond the group stage at the Asian Cup. And this new contract guidelines come from.
Despite Stimac’s refusal, Prabhakaran has remained unchanged in his position about the contract and said that he doesn’t want to be a distraction at a time when his team needs him. A discussion will take place after Schalke’s current manager returns, he stated.
The Indian football team will play Singapore on Tuesday, September 24 and Vietnam on September 27.
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