Football

Legendary Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia has resigned from the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) technical committee, alleging that the panel was "bypassed" in the appointment of the national men's team head coach.Bhutia, a co-opted member of the executive committee as a former player, attended Saturday's meeting where Spaniard Manolo Marquez was named India head coach. He claimed that under normal practice, the technical committee recommends the head coach of the national team."It is the job of the technical committee to shortlist the candidates who have applied and recommend the suitable person to become coach. But this time, there was not even a single technical committee meeting to appoint successor of Stimac," Bhutia told PTI.He added that a special committee under AIFF vice president NA Haris was dealing with the matter of finding a successor to Stimac, which he opposed."I completely opposed the constitution of the special committee. There is a technical committee already in place and how come you formed a special committee to discuss the appointment of the coach."Bhutia said that the process of hiring, firing, and extending coaches by the executive committee without consulting the technical committee devalued the panel's role."The president proposes one or two names and the executive committee agrees to one," he said.The AIFF said that technical committee chairman IM Vijayan was consulted in the coach appointment process. However, Bhutia maintained that the technical committee was not involved in the decision-making."Since the technical committee was not involved, there was no value of technical committee, then why are we for. So, I said I am resigning from technical committee membership," he said.