All India Football Federation: The President of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Kalyan Chaubey, on Friday held a virtual meeting with the senior members of the Federation to discuss the recommendations made by the AIFF Technical Committee on India’s recent performances in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the AFC Asian Cup 2027 preliminary joint qualifiers Round 2 matches against Afghanistan.
The AIFF President and its members also took note of certain comments made by India head coach Igor Stimac on his future with the team after the completion of the Round 2 qualifiers.
The meeting was attended by 14 senior members of the AIFF.
India played two World Cup qualifiers against Afghanistan recently. While the first match in Abha, Saudi Arabia, ended in a stalemate, the second in Guwahati saw India suffer a humiliating 1-2 defeat at the hands of Afghanistan which is ranked 158th in the world.
Chaubey, after listening to all the members’ recommendations and suggestions, constituted a five-member committee comprising N.A. Haris, Vice President, AIFF; Menla Ethenpa, Member, Executive Committee and Chairperson, Finance Committee; Anilkumar Prabhakaran, Member, Executive Committee, and Chairperson, Competitions Committee; I.M. Vijayan, Member, Executive Committee, and Chairperson, Technical Committee; and Climax Lawrence, Member, Executive Committee and Technical Committee.
The panel has been requested to hold discussions with Stimac and seek further clarification in the matter.
On Thursday, the Technical Committee met under the chairpersonship of former India player Vijayan, where the members -- Pinky Bompal Magar, Shabbir Ali, Climax Lawrence, Victor Amalraj, and Santosh Singh -- expressed their disappointment over India’s recent performances, and recommended that discussions need to be held with the head coach before the next two World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait (June 6) and Qatar (June 11).