With Indian football finding itself in the midst of a mini-crisis as questions swirl around the Indian Super League and the men’s national team goes through an extremely rough patch on the highest level, new full-time coach Khalid Jamil prepares for his first national camp in Kolkata this month.
Jamil has become his nation’s first non-foreign full-time coach in two decades, as he steps in to take over from the disastrous stint of Manolo Marquez. Joining on after his stint with Jamshedpur FC, Jamil is highly-regarded in AIFF circles — but has his task cut out for him in a tough moment.
He hasn’t been exempt from questions either, with many questioning why this was the direction the AIFF took. One of India’s all-time greats Baichung Bhutia had his own theory, wondering if the football federation’s ability to hold greater sway over a local coach might have led to this decision.
“We have got two world class coaches leaving, we have got Igor Štimac who coached the Croatian team, and then Manolo Marquez who is one of the great coaches with great history,” explained Bhutia in an interview with PTI.
“If these two coaches couldn’t work with the federation, then you bring people who will listen and will do what Federations says and will not come up with his own ideas and demands from the federation,” he continued. “I think Jamil being a domestic coach fits into that as he is fairly new to the team.”
Bhutia furious with AIFF: ‘There is scam after scam…’
Bhutia hasn’t held back from throwing verbal grenades at the AIFF and its head Kalyan Chaubey, whom he has referred to as a ‘circus’ in the past. Bhutia also brought under question whether an atmosphere such as the AIFF would be conducive for Jamil, hinting at corruption within the system.
“Feel sorry for him as well as he is taking charge of the team when it’s in a very difficult situation. For Kalyan, he is the right guys because Indian coaches do not demand much. There are coaches … they are being paid by the other people, I don’t know where all the money’s gone, and there are scam after scam,” said a heated Bhutia.
Jamil will face the unenviable task of trying to pull Indian football back up after a disappointing couple of years, which will begin with his selection process ahead of the September internationals. During this, India have a set of group matches in the CAFA Nations Cup scheduled against Tajikistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
