 "Igor Stimac sacked as India coach: Two great years, three not-so-good and a disappointing end")
It took a week but the All India Football Federation (AIFF) finally wielded the axe and sacked Igor Stimac as the head coach of the India men’s national football team on Monday, putting a stamp on what seemingly the majority of fans had been demanding for a long time. In a brief statement , the federation said a “new Head Coach would be best placed to take the team forward”.
No one can say we didn’t see this coming.
The decision follows the crushing end to another FIFA World Cup Qualifiers campaign and while India were robbed of a chance against Asian champions Qatar in their last game after giving a tough fight, the Blue Tigers’ inability to churn out results against lower-ranked sides like Afghanistan and Kuwait cost them history – a chance to play in the third round of the Qualifiers for the first time.
The significance of reaching the third round can be gauged from the fact that in Kolkata earlier this month, former captain Sunil Chhetri constantly downplayed his farewell game in his last press conference , urging reporters to focus on the Kuwait match — a victory in which could have paved the way for a watershed moment in Indian football.
It didn’t happen though, leading to furious reactions from fans, demanding Stimac’s resignation.
Read: Why AIFF sacked Igor Stimac and what was his salary? – All you need to know
The 56-year-old, who won a bronze at the 1998 World Cup as a player and managed the Croatian national team, was reportedly not interested in stepping down even though he said in March that he would quit if India failed to reach the third round.
Always cash-strapped, AIFF, took a bit of time, hoping the former Derby County and West Ham United defender, who has a contract till 2026, would make an early departure but when it didn’t happen, president Kalyan Chaubey and Co pulled the plug. Both parties are now set to be involved in a legal battle and if things go south, the Indian football federation may end up paying a compensation package of $7,20,000 compensation package (Rs 6 crore approximately).
Where Stimac lost the game
That’s as far as the present scenario is concerned but did you sense a dichotomy here? India were alive in the race for the third round till the very last game but still, the demand was to sack the coach. Given India’s not-so-proud history in the Qualifiers, the demand to sack the coach may even look farcical to an outsider at face value.
But as always, the devil is in the detail.
The campaign started with an away win over Kuwait – the first FIFA World Cup Qualifier win outside India in 22 years. But, it soon went downhill with defeats against Qatar and Afghanistan. The inability to beat a lower-ranked Afghanistan in two matches in March 2024 when the opponents were already grappling with boycotts from first-choice players is the real reason why India failed to qualify for the third round.
In what could have been a saving grace at the Salt Lake Stadium, India put up a spiritless performance against Kuwait in a goalless draw, giving Chhetri a not-so-deserving farewell.
Not to forget sandwiched between the World Cup Qualifiers was the horrific AFC Asian Cup 2023 campaign where India finished without a goal or a point from three matches, suffering heartbreaking and ignominious defeats to Uzbekistan and Syria.
India, in fact, have won only one match in their last 12 games. The last time they won consecutive games was in July 2023. Apart from the results, how the match intensity and creativity fell in the 10-11 months is also disconcerting.
Igor Stimac sacked: Top 5 candidates for India head coach role
Lallianzuala Chhangte’s goal against Qatar last Tuesday was India’s first from open play since November 2023. One of the major reasons behind India’s ineffectiveness from open play had been their lacklustre football in the midfield and on the wings.
Stimac’s footballing philosophy is pretty simple: Stuff the team with runners and attack from the wings. There’s a special focus on fitness and he demands his players to run for their lives for 90 minutes. And even though he prefers passing and positive football, he largely sets up his teams to play on the counter-attack.
In these last 10-11 months, the wingers had been largely ineffective, the substitutes had been anonymous, the midfielders had lacked incisiveness plus decisiveness and the defence had been leaky. With Chhetri losing form, the goal-scoring also became a bigger burden.
A repeat of the past
Interestingly, it wasn’t the first time it happened to India under Stimac.
This was also the case during the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 2021 when India drew against lower-ranked Bangladesh and Afghanistan to exit from the second round after that famous result against Qatar, or when they were held to a goalless draw by 205th-ranked Sri Lanka in SAFF Cup 2021.
But India bounced back in 2022 by winning three games in the third round of AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers, playing some eye-catching football. Things got better in 2023 as they defeated higher-ranked Kyrgyz Republic and Lebanon to win three international trophies.
It seemed like Stimac, who joined the Blue Tigers in 2019 with a lot of promise, had finally turned a corner after three difficult years. However, the team soon became substandard once again and the coach had to go.
There’s just too much inconsistency, and if you are to consider the past to predict the future, there’s a lack of clear pattern – it’s littered with the unknown.
But while Stimac has been disposed off in a move that aligns with the “mood of the country” as touted by some AIFF sources, one mustn’t forget that in Indian football, the buck never stops just at the coach.
Vocal coach
The footballing infrastructure and administrative system are corroded. The supply chain is impaired and the current pool is far from being ideal.
Still, there were a few achievements that marked a positive step in the right direction and showed significant growth compared to the past, impossible to ignore for those closely following the team. Two of the most notable were the improved fitness levels of Indian players and the enhanced cohesiveness within the camp.
Speaking to Indian players, very few could pinpoint exactly what was going wrong. Some were as baffled as us, but even during the tough times, most of them stood together. There was also a noticeable shift in mentality.
The Blue Tigers were thinking like tigers, at least in patches.
The fitness transformation was there for everyone to see. Of course, it has been aided by the Indian Super League (ISL) and the growing standards domestically, but the Indian players were a different beast while playing for India.
Last but not least, Stimac’s media interactions also make for an interesting case study. While he constantly deflected the criticism and placed blame on others, he also asked epoch-making questions: on schedule, the clash between the club and the international calendar, the scarcity of Indian strikers in clubs, and the presence of fewer clubs in top divisions.
It was his job to ask those questions, and he played that role close to perfection.
So when the new coach comes in, let’s hope the positives are retained and the negatives are turned around.
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