“Nothing I Can Tell You Now”: Coach Igor Stimac On His Future With Indian Football Team

Under-pressure India football coach Igor Stimac was non-committal about his future with the team after it crashed out of the 2026 World Cup qualification race following a controversial 1-2 loss to Asian champions Qatar in Doha. Qatar scored from a ball that had clearly gone out of play to equalise before adding a second to send India out of contention from the third round of World Cup qualification. A few weeks ago, Stimac had promised to leave if he failed in his “mission” to take India into the third round.

On Tuesday, a crestfallen Stimac was not so sure and said he would need a few more days to figure things out.

“That’s something we need to discuss internally in the next few weeks where our futures stand. There is nothing I can tell you now,” the 56-year-old, who took over in 2019, said.

“What I can tell you is that it was obvious tonight that India has a good future in football. Many people will say that Qatar played with a reserve team, but our team is not that older than the Qatari team today,” he added.

Last October, Stimac and his support staff got an extension that keeps them in charge of the senior and the under-23 men’s football teams till June 2026.

If the team had made the third round of World Cup Qualifiers, Stimac’s contract would have been automatically renewed till 2028.

Despite the heartbreak here, what can’t be ignored is India’s underwhelming campaign, which included a home loss to lower-ranked Afghanistan.

Stimac was quizzed about it and he said the team can easily make it to the World Cup if Indian-origin players competing in European leagues are allowed into the national fold.

“If we were allowed to use them, then India would qualify for the World Cup regularly. We have 1.5 billion people, but we have a league with only 13 clubs with no relegation so competitiveness is missing there.

“In half the season, you have five or six clubs who don’t fight for anything anymore,” he said.

“For the players to come to a certain level of competitiveness, they need to play under pressure during the season and need to feel the intensity of games in each game without relaxation so that they can come to the international level and provide the same,” Stimac explained.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)