# Igor Stimac accuses AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey of wrecking Asian Games squad 2026-08-23T11:11:35+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Former India football head coach Igor Stimac has accused All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey of dismantling the squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games. In an exclusive interview with Sports Now, Stimac said Chaubey overruled his list of young players and replaced them with seniors, which disrupted team preparation and cooperation with the Indian Super League. Stimac said he had submitted a squad of only under-23 players to avoid clashing with the ISL season, and had an agreement with the league's organisers. He claimed Chaubey changed the list, leading to the eventual inclusion of Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhingan. India lost 1-5 to China in their opening match, beat Bangladesh 1-0, drew 1-1 with Myanmar, and were eliminated by Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the Round of 16. Stimac also alleged that the fallout with Chaubey hurt India's FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, with promises not kept and clubs reluctant to release players. He said Chaubey cared more about a photo with Arsene Wenger than the national team. The AIFF has not yet responded to the allegations. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The row exposes the chronic tension between the national team coach and the federation over player availability during the ISL season. The Asian Games rule that initially barred senior players forced a last-minute rethink, and Stimac's claim of a broken agreement with the league suggests deeper coordination failures. The AIFF's executive committee, which includes Chaubey, will need to address these allegations before the next World Cup qualifiers in June. The key question is whether the federation can rebuild trust with the coach and clubs to avoid repeating the same chaos. ## Coverage - timesnownews.com Leads with exclusive interview and direct quotes accusing the AIFF president, framing the story around personal conflict and blame. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: All India Football Federation, Igor Stimac, Indian Super League, Kalyan Chaubey, Sunil Chhetri Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/igor-stimac-accuses-aiff-president-kalyan-chaubey-of-wrecking-asian-games-squad/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/igor-stimac-accuses-aiff-president-kalyan-chaubey-of-wrecking-asian-games-squad/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/