New Delhi, June 24 (IANS): The All-India Football Federation (AIFF) has released a statement responding to the accusations made by Igor Stimac during his final address to Indian media. A lot of talk was around his contract and the absence of the termination clause which caused an uproar in the fan base.

The AIFF have now stated that the final amount in Stimac’s contract was done without the approval of the core committee.

"The current leadership of the AIFF took office in September 2022, at which time Stimac had already been in the position for over three years. When his contract came up for renewal in October 2023, the Core Committee of the AIFF, under the chairmanship of Vice-President N.A. Haris met in advance and proposed to the AIFF that Stimac could be offered a two-year contract with a monthly salary of US$ 30,000 from January 2024 and to instruct the legal team to finalise the contract ‘with a termination clause favourable to AIFF’," read the statement made by the AIFF.

According to the statement, Stimac’s new contract’s details were finalised and amended without the core committee’s approval. The new contract stipulated that Stimac's contract was for 30,000 USD per month till February 2025 and raised to 40,000 USD from February 2024-January 2026 ‘without Core Committee approval for the said amount’

“The then Secretary-General and AIFF legal consultant negotiated and finalised and the then Secretary-General signed the contract with Stimac. The executed contract provides for a salary raise to US$ 30,000 per month from February 2024 to January 2025 (as approved by the Core Committee) and US$40,000 per month from February 2024 to January 2026 (without Core Committee approval for the said amount). The specific instructions regarding inserting termination clauses favourable to AIFF were also not followed before executing the contract. However, certain clauses for termination for cause were retained in the contract,” added the statement.

The AIFF stated that Stimac was trying to get out of his coaching stint and was not entirely focused on the important FIFA WC Qualifier against Kuwait that took place on June 6 which was also Sunil Chhetri’s final game with the squad.

“It appears that Stimac was more concerned about finding specious reasons to end his coaching stint in a manner favourable to himself rather than focusing on the team’s preparations for perhaps the most important match in the Indian national team’s recent history,” further added the statement.

Another point of speculation was Stimac’s announcement in which he talked about how a meeting with the AIFF ultimately led to him having to have heart surgery in December 2023, a fact that the AIFF has now announced that they did not know about which they believe was an attempt to ‘deflect the serious matter of Stimac not having been medically fit to render coaching services’.

“The AIFF is also shocked to note from Stimac’s public statements that he underwent heart surgery during his engagement with the AIFF. He has irresponsibly blamed the AIFF for causing his heart ailment, attempting to deflect the serious matter of his not having been medically fit to render coaching services and his failure to formally disclose the same to the AIFF,” concluded the statement.