Kolkata : Former Indian Football legend Bhaichung Bhutia has made shocking statement regarding the state of Indian Football, agreeing with former coach Igor Stimac statement few days ago who said that even if India get Guardiola or Mourinho as head coach, it won’t find success.
Indian team who’re currently going through a rough patch, bring winless since 2024 yet again disappointed with their sluggish performance after a goalless draw against Bangladesh in AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifier clash.
Agreeing with Igor Stimac’s statement, Bhutia stated that even if Indian team gets Alex Ferguson, unless it has quality in player’s set up, it won’t improve.
He said, “The success of a team always depends on a coach’s tactical genius and players’ quality. It is a combination of both. Even if you bring the best of coaches, if you do not have good players, it will be difficult to get the desired results. Even if you get Sir Alex Ferguson as the coach, until and unless you have the quality players in the set-up, Indian football will not go forward”.
Bhutia didn’t completely blame lack of preparation and scheduling as cause of India’s poor show but focused on lack of quality.
“The problem is if you do not have good quality players, who can adapt to any situation and adjust to any formation as quickly as possible… The best players adapt quickly when they are playing club football and for national teams under different coaches. Yes, you need adequate time to prepare well for an important match, but if you don’t have players with proper skills, then it will be difficult for the coach to get the success. It is about having a strong grassroot program and that should be the priority of the federation”, Bhutia continued.
Bhutia made strong comments regarding AIFF’s role to bring Indian Football back on track. He said that India won’t improve with only Kalyan Chaubey or federation members sitting and making statements, with comparatively less work.
The India legend stressed on working and research in grassroot level, giving quality training, and so on, the major works that can be done by AIFF.
He acknowledged few private academies for bringing up talents and urged AIFF to work together with them.
“Federation (AIFF) needs to talk less and work more. Indian football will not move a single step forward with AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey making statements sitting in his air-conditioned room to the media about Vision 2047 or taking an initiative about getting PIOs and OCIs in the Indian football team.
You must see what exactly is the work going on at the grassroots level. What kind of research work is being done to really promote footballers in grassroots and ground level. How serious is the federation in terms of providing quality training facilities for the national team, organising matches for the senior team that needs to be looked at.
If you look, most of the players that are coming up are a product of the private academies across the country. A lot of players are coming from the academies which are being run by private organisations like the Minerva Academy, Bhaichung Bhutia Football School, TATA and Reliance.
It is the private academies which put in a lot of money and time to produce talented footballers. We must find out what exactly our football federation and state associations are doing in terms of developing grassroots level. Barring a couple of state associations, none have an academy of their own. If the private academies stop functioning, there will be no players coming out from tomorrow.
These academies are pumping in money from their own pockets, organising trials to tap talents across the country and giving them the opportunities. The Federation needs to look at solutions on how to work together in tandem rather than making rules to create a hindrance in the development of Indian football. The priority should be to get more kids playing football today. How it can be done is more important. If we have 50 lakh kids playing football, we can easily unearth talents and groom them”.
Bhutia didn’t completely support comeback of Sunil Chhetri in Indian team. As per him, Chhetri, now 40, has passed his prime, and would now find it difficult to dribble past defender.
He suggested that India could have gone for someone young just like Bangladesh did. As per him, Indian Head coach Manolo Marquez was under pressure as the senior team is winless since 2024. So this could have been the reason for bringing in an aged Chhetri back.
“I think it was evident from the fact that Manolo Marquez is under tremendous pressure since the senior team has not won a single competitive game in 2024. So, that may have influenced Manolo to take this decision, convincing Sunil to rethink about his decision to come back from retirement.
Look, Sunil is now 40 plus and he has passed his prime. Sunil is in that age where he will not be able to dribble past a defender and score a goal. You are playing an Asia Cup qualifier which happens for almost a year. For a qualifier against Bangladesh, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Manolo could have taken a gamble with young strikers in giving opportunities to them, looking for long-term development. Look at Bangladesh, they fielded an 18-year-old player in the match against India. Clearly, they have a long-term vision in place”, Bhutia concluded.
