Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia highlighted poor management in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) alleged that its president Kalyan Chaubey has turned the sport’s national body into a “circus” and he himself does not know what is his plan of ‘Vision 2047’.

AIFF Vision 2047 is a strategic roadmap developed by AIFF to transform Indian football into a powerhouse in Asia by the year 2047.

In a recent press conference, Bhutia pointed at the sad state of affairs of football in the country which has led to many wondering what the future of the sport.

“It is very unfortunate that we are 133rd in rankings. We can all see we are struggling in the Asian Cup Qualifiers. I believe we have a good chance of qualifying but at the same time we have to realise that the Asian Cup now has 24 teams, compared to 16 during my captaincy, so we must qualify.

“Our great President Kalyan Chaubey had earlier said we will be in the top 10 in Asia by 2026. Now he is saying we should have prepared for this 10 years ago. In three years under Kalyan Chaubey, even our women’s team has gone down. I think he himself does not know what ‘Vision 2047’ is,” the former India striker said in a press conference.

Following Igor Stimac’s turbulent exit and India’s elimination from the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the team went winless throughout 2024. Their only victory came in March when veteran striker Sunil Chhetri came out of retirement to lead the side to a 3-0 win over the Maldives – India’s first win in 489 days.

Bhutia compared the current state of the AIFF to a circus and called Chaubey a “joker”.

“Anybody following Indian football knows it’s a circus right now, and obviously if you put a joker in that position then that is what will happen,” he said.

The AIFF president had also accused the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools, a chain of commercial football academies run by the former striker, of “taking undue advantage by playing on emotions”.

Bhaichung addressed the allegations and spoke on the progress of his academies.

“I usually don’t talk about Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools during a press conference but it is high time. We had started the tournament 12 years back and within 2-3 years we decided we needed to be sustainable. That is when we started the after-school programme. 30% of students are on a full scholarship whereas 70% were focused on after-school programmes. We have got 220 coaches, 70 centres and are the biggest grassroots programme in the nation. All the money that comes in goes towards our goal.

“Kalyan had talked about the FIFA Academy, four players were from our school. He talked about the women’s academy, our club Garhwal FC had won the tournament in which they (Indian Arrows) finished runners-up (Indian Women’s League 2). He himself has not done anything to contribute to football, even when he played he was focused on politics,” Bhutia added.

–IANS

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