Published 19:22 IST, June 24th 2024
'His dependence on an astrologer...': AIFF gives strong response to Igor Stimac's shocking claims
The AIFF has come out all guns blazing and given a strong answer to the accusations made by disgruntled former India national team coach Igor Stimac.

Indian football is going through another period of turmoil as AIFF and former Indian National team coach Igor Stimac are trading allegations and accusations. After, AIFF decided to sack Igor Stimac post India’s failure in the second round of World Cup, the Croatian manager came out and made shocking accusations against the board and president Kalyan Chaubey.
Citing those accusations, the AIFF on Monday gave a strongly worded reply to Igor Stimac’s claims and exposed the manager for depending on Astrologer to decide the fate of the Indian national team. AIFF has further accused Igor Stimac of not taking any personal responsibility for his actions and misleading the fans and other boards.
AIFF’s strong response to Igor Stimac
AIFF in their response to Igor Stimac did not hold back any punches and threw the Croatian under the bus. AIFF decided to touch upon the Astrologer fiasco and said they were shocked to hear his statements on lack of support.
“The new AIFF leadership was shocked to note his dependence on an astrologer to determine player’s call ups, team selections and took immediate necessary action to end the same. His selection of support staff had also gone unquestioned and was the subject of disquiet among many players”, said AIFF in the statement.
AIFF in their statement further revealed that, “despite all the support, the coach always sought to deflect blame and according to him everything and everyone else was wrong and responsible for any given situation except himself”.
Igor Stimac misrepresented Facts - AIFF
Igor Stimac during his supposed expose of Indian football and AIFF went as far as to say that he wasn’t provided with the right GPS gear for more than 200 days of training camp in India.
However, AIFF has refuted those claims and acknowledged that the GPS gear was lost during transit, but the team was provided with replacement in 50 days. This according to AIFF was misleading and exaggeration from Stimac.
AIFF further went to refute Igor Stimac claims to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that he was only given support staff of four people as AIFF confirmed that Igor Stimac always had a support staff of 13 to 16 people during every camp. The AIFF thinks that these accusations by Stimac are only their to gain him sympathy from AFC at the cost of India.
“It is evident that Mr. Stimac intentionally misrepresented facts, to gain sympathy from other nation’s coaches and the AFC, at the reputational cost of India, the AIFF and Indian football. Mr. Stimac’s motivations for denigrating the federation and the nation he operates in must only be surmised,” stated AIFF.
The response from AIFF is certainly another shocking revelation of how tumultuous and strenuous the relationship between the coach and the board was towards the end.
Updated 19:39 IST, June 24th 2024