Controversies surrounding the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in India do not seem to be ending. Now, few members of the committee appointed to select a new head coach for the Indian team have complained that they are being ignored by the All India Football Federation, PTI reported.
The committee members are peeved that they were not consulted even as the AIFF went ahead and named Portugal’s Luis Norton de Matos as its “number one choice” to succeed Nicolai Adam, who was sacked earlier this month following complaints of physical and verbal abuse by the players.
De Matos is set to arrive in India over the coming weekend to meet AIFF President Praful Patel and Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas to chalk out his contract details, the report added.
“We have never recommended any coach as number one choice,” a member of the special committee was quoted as saying. “AIFF has bypassed the special committee constituted by the president to select the coach of India U-17 team.”
“There were more than 70 applications and we had pruned it down to eight and then to three or four candidates. We were to have a final meeting to select the coach. But this final meeting never happened and the AIFF on its own has now named one coach as their number one choice without consulting the committee. This is not right,” he added.