Bhaichung Bhutia may have hung up his boots from international football in 2011 but he remains involved with the game. He headed the technical committee of the All Indian Football Federation before his tenure ended last week. In a conversation with Times of India published on Wednesday, he talked about his stint and where Indian football is headed.
“When I joined the technical committee, India’s FIFA ranking was 160-plus. We have risen to No 132 since, which is a good sign,” said the the 40-year-old former striker.
Indian football is currently in a state of flux. There are talks about a proposed merger between the Indian Super League and the I-League. But nothing has been put on record.
Even Bhuta admitted that he was not sure about the merger and it was AIFF’s call.
“The initial proposal was to make ISL the top league of the country but there was no official talk of a merger. Under the proposal, it was seven months of ISL and seven months of I-League, which would be the second-tier event,” revealed Bhutia. “However, in my opinion, whatever shape it takes, there has to be relegation and promotion of teams from one tier to the other down the line. If there is no promotion and relegation, it will drive away the potential sponsors and kill the competitive element of the league.”
The recent Nicolai Adam saga was a low point in Indian football. The German parted ways with the AIFF as head coach of the Under-17 Indian football team over allegations of abusive behaviour.
“His departure is a big setback as the under-17 World Cup is round the corner. I don’t know who’s to be blamed,” said Bhutia. “I feel the team manager should have kept the AIFF informed about what was going on in the team. As a technical committee member, I was involved in the process [of removing Adam from the post]. I took Rennedy Singh along to talk the players because there were a number of players from Manipur. But the kids seemed to have made up their mind. It is unfortunate but we couldn’t have continued with Nicolai.”
The former Indian captain also cited “lack of communication between the coach and the technical committee” as one of the reasons for Adam’s departure. “
“The national coaches, at senior and age-group levels ,should have regular interactions with the committee. If any coach has technical issues he can’t go over to AIFF officials because they don’t have the required technical knowledge,” mentioned Bhutia.