The All India Football Federation on Thursday said that a coaching official with the Indian women’s U17 football team has been called back to the country midway through the team’s foreign tour after reports of misconduct.

A complaint was made by a player against an assistant coach in the team that is currently on a foreign tour to Italy and Norway, as reported by The Away End.

The Indian team under coach Thomas Dennerby will be competing as hosts at the Women’s U-17 World Cup that starts in October, and have been training abroad to prepare for the event. The squad recently finished their tour in Italy, where they competed in a four-nations event that included the hosts, Netherlands and Mexico.

According to a follow up on Sportstar, which also quotes sources in the AIFF for the name of the coach, a report submitted to the federation by the management mentions previous misdemeanours by the concerned indvidual.

The assistant coach in question though reportedly did not travel with the team to the Norway-leg of the campaign.

“An event of misconduct has been reported in the U17 women’s team currently on an exposure tour to Europe,” the All India Football Federation said in a statement where they did not name the coach in question.

“The AIFF follows a zero-tolerance policy on indiscipline. As an initial action, the Federation has provisionally suspended the individual pending further investigation. The AIFF has asked the concerned individual to stop all contact with the team, return to India immediately, and be physically present for further investigations upon his arrival.”

India have been clubbed with USA, Morocco and Brazil in Group A of the U17 Women’s World Cup the official draw for which was held at the FIFA Headquarters in Zurich recently.

India begin their campaign on the opening day against USA on October 11, followed by matches against Morocco and Brazil on October 14, and October 17, 2022 respectively. All of India’s matches in the group stage kick-off at IST 8pm at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The tournament will be held from October 11-30, 2022.

The national federation is currently under the control of a Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, ending the controversy-ridden term of former president Praful Patel. It’s a move that prompted a Fifa-AFC joint delegation to India to hand the country a July 31 deadline to get its constitution in place or face a ban.

This new incident, though, spells more turbulent times ahead for the federation already under pressure to clean house.

Update: On Sunday, CoA member SY Quraishi confirmed that Alex Ambrose was sacked for sexual misconduct.