Indian football team coach Igor Stimac sought astrologer's help to select playing XI in June 2022: Report

Indian football team head coach Igor Stimac sought the help of an astrologer to determine the team’s playing XI for an Asian Cup qualifier against Afghanistan in June 2022, a report in The Indian Express said on Tuesday. The report said that Stimac had paid the astrologer a sum of about “Rs 12-15 lakh”. Stimac and Bhupesh Sharma, the astrologer, shared 100 messages among them between May and June 2022. This was a time when India had played four matches, against Cambodia, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Jordan. The game against Afghanistan was a must-win game for India, who were injury-ridden, and Stimac sent a “probable XI” list of players to the astrologer, 48 hours before the game, on 9 June 2022. The game took place on 11 June, 2022. “Hi dear Bhupesh, it was a pleasure meeting you and discussing future work! I would kindly ask you to provide opinion on the following players,” Stimac had messaged Sharma, according to the report. The Croat then shared the date, time and place of birth of four players, the report added. “Hi dear friend, you can check charts for each player from the list for 11 June. Kick off time is at 20.30,” Stimac had messaged. “Good”; “can do very well. Needs to avoid over confidence”; “a below average day”; “a very good day for him but might get over aggressive”; “not recommended for the day”, were the astrologer’s replies regarding some of the players. Following the friendly defeat to Jordan, Stimac had also had a discussion on the players’ individual performances with the astrologer. In a separate interaction, the astrologer had informed Stimac that it was not an “ideal day or phase” for an unidentified attacking midfielder. Stimac then asked the astrologer to compare him with three other attacking players, and the astrologer quickly replied. That player then came on as a second-half substitute against Jordan. Stimac had also messaged Sharma before the match against Cambodia, saying that three players were returning from injuries and wanted to “save them” for the second game. According to the report, the then AIFF president Praful Patel was “not aware” regarding the issue. However, Kushal Das, the then secretary-general of AIFF, said that he had introduced Stimac to the astrologer. “I met him at a meeting. He (Sharma) had worked for a lot of telecom companies and Bollywood personalities. What they presented was that astrological timings and the current phase of players can help motivate people into taking the right decisions,” Das was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “That time, I was worried if India would qualify for the Asian Cup and so was Igor, let me be very honest. It was not a comfortable situation. For me, the most important thing was that India should qualify. So I told him (Sharma) that I will put you in touch with the coach and if he likes it, he thinks your services can be utilised, he can get back to me. Igor was very convinced and they were in Kolkata throughout,” he added. “Since we used his professional services for two months, we paid him around Rs 12-15 lakh. That didn’t seem a huge amount since India qualified for the Asian Cup,” Das said, regarding Sharma’s contract. These developments come at a time when India are in the top 100 of the FIFA rankings. Stimac, meanwhile, is in the middle of another controversy, as he is involved in a fight with the Indian Super League (ISL) on the release of players for national duties, that includes the Asian Games starting from 23 September. The Asian Games in Hangzhou is set to coincide with the start of the 2023-24 ISL season, commencing from 21 September.