‘Who Stole My Football’: Ex-AIFF insider exposes mismanagement, Stimac's snub and ISL crisis

Indian football has gone from bad to worse in the last two years and a new book that has just been released provides a blow by blow account of how the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and president Kalyan Chaubey allegedly lost the plot. Indian men's national team's FIFA ranking has fallen to an abysmal 133, the lowest in nine years, and the top division Indian Super League's next season which was to begin in a few months remains in a state of uncertainty as its organisers Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) and the AIFF have not yet signed the Masters Rights Agreement (MRA).

In his book 'Who Stole My Football', renowned journalist Jaydeep Basu has presented an insider's view of what he described as a systemic collapse of Indian football, including financial mismanagement, under Chaubey's leadership. Basu has served as AIFF's media director and has had access to the changes in the organisation which he has described in detail.

"The entire professional structure of the AIFF secretariat suffered a breakdown since 2024. The laid down process of appointments was not followed in many instances," Basu wrote in his book.
According to Basu, the situation "reached its lowest ebb after Anilkumar took over as the secretary general".

Anilkumar, who replaced Shaji Prabhakaran as the AIFF Secretary General when he was sacked in November 2023, had to step down earlier this year after his appointment was suspended by the Delhi high court. The book also provides detailed description of how unprepared Indian football team was when it participated in the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023. The Indian football team's first group game was played hours after the team arrived in the Games Village in Hangzhou as the AIFF managed to cobble a second-rung team in the eleventh hour. The team had not been able to make it to the knock-out round.

Chaubey's equations with Croatian legend and former India coach Igor Stimac also received a mention in the book. "Stimac was bitterly disappointed when Chaubey, without consulting the national coach, finalised India's participation in the Merdeka Cup in 2024 during FIFA international window. Stimac's biggest complaint was that he never had a chance to explain his side of the story and his plans with the national team because he was hardly given an audience," he wrote in the book.