All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) acting secretary general M Satyanarayan on Friday said the sports body has drawn up a shortlist of 20 “competent” candidates for the job of the Indian men’s team head coach. The position was left vacant after the sacking of Igor Stimac last month, following the Indian team’s failure to reach the third round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers after losses to Qatar and Afghanistan. “We have shortlisted a few coaches, you can say around 20, and we have also written to some of them to see if, from the time they have applied to now, they are still available because lots of people are signing up,” Satyanarayan told PTI Video.

“So we are very close to shortlisting a handful and then it will go to the executive committee, tomorrow maybe, and then we also have to involve the technical community. That decision will be taken over the next two days,” the office-bearer added.

The AIFF sacked senior men’s team head coach Stimac last month, terminating his contract exactly a year before it was to expire in the wake of the side’s ouster from the second round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers despite getting a relatively easy draw.

Stimac, who was appointed as the head coach in 2019, was last October given an extension until 2026 by the sport’s apex body.

Terming his sacking “unilateral”, Stimac threatened to file a lawsuit against the national federation in the FIFA Tribunal if it failed to clear his dues within 10 days.

Satyanarayan said, “Now we must understand that the team is in a good space, we came very close to entering the third round (of World Cup Qualifiers).

“We have already finalised in October, the window whom we are playing, we are trying for September but we are not getting very good teams. But we need to finalise it, so as of now we are looking at teams that are a little lower than us, but we need to use that window.

“So let us see who the final candidates are then we will have to speak to them and then the decision will be taken, it will be an informed one.” Satyanarayan, who is serving in the post since the removal of Shaji Prabhakaran last November, refused to reveal names of the candidates who have applied for the top job.

“I cannot tell because it will not be fair because some of the coaches who have applied are still in contract and they would not want to be named.

“It is just a matter of a few days so it is not a very simple thing to do because we had many applications, we are very happy to know that a lot of big coaches are keen to come to India which means the potential is there. so lets wait,” Satyanarayan said.

The AIFF and Stimac often found themselves at loggerheads over important issues concerning the team, with the latter holding the federation’s president Kalyan Chaubey responsible for India’s failure to progress beyond the second round of the World Cup Qualifiers.

Asked about the criteria for selecting the head coach, Satyanarayan said, “Yes definitely, that is something we will zero in on, so depending on what we want and what they bring to the table, so that decision will happen, it should happen very soon.” He added, “Right now we don’t have anything up to next March so it also depends on what the coach also wants to do, maybe he has got a long-term plan so now we are at a very premature stage.

“What we have done with the ones we have got, there’s also a difference, you have club coaches, you have national team coaches. There is a difference between them because the club coaches have the players with them almost a whole year, national coaches is a little different, so all those things will be discussed.

“We have got some competent people who can do that.” The retirement of the legendary Sunil Chhetri has left a huge void in the team and it does not look like it will be filled anytime soon.

Speaking further, Satyanarayan said, “We also don’t have time because if you are looking at September, then we have got the whole of August now and we would also like to move fast because the boys have also been playing well.

“We will see, this year Durand Cup is starting, maybe some names will come up so we will see. I don’t want to say who it is but a handful of them who can fill in for him and we saw that in the last match, the boys played well without Sunil.”

File photo of Igor Stimac.© AFP

Indian football team lost 2-4 to Malaysia in Merdeka Cup.© Twitter