AIFF elections: Bhaichung Bhutia files fresh nomination for president’s post

Considered the torchbearer of Indian football, Bhaichung offered his candidature with the hope that the state associations will opt for him “considering his contribution to Indian football.”

FILE PHOTO: Former Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia.

Former India captain Bhaicung Bhutia filed his nomination for the post of president in the ensuing elections of All India Football Federation (AIFF), with a call to bring “reforms in the functioning of the federation and make India play the World Cups on merit and not as a host.”

Considered the torchbearer of Indian football, Bhaichung offered his candidature with the hope that the state associations, which comprise the voters in the electoral college decided for the AIFF elections, will opt for him “considering his contribution to Indian football.”

“In order to play the World Cups, be it the ones for the age groups or the main one for the seniors, you need to bring in a lot of reforms to have the right management and long term plans. I can bring that in place,” Bhaichung said, laying out the objectives for his decision to contest.

“As a first step I have reached out to the state associations and told them that I will work for them by allocating a substantial amount of budget to them to have proper leagues and youth development progrmme. I think till today none of the state associations have been managed, guided and financed properly by the national federation,” Bhaichung said.

“My appeal to the associations is to have football as the priority and for that they need to bring in the right kind of people who have ability to change the governance of the sport. I am the right person as I have dedicated my life to football and have earned the laurels like Arjuna and Padmashree Awards. I would like to give everything back to the sport now,” Bhaichung added.

“Kalyan (Chaubey) is a nice guy and a junior in the Indian team but I have much more experience and better credentials as a footballer,” Bhaichung said about his presidential opponent. The former captain said that so far he is going it alone but hoped to have more people joining his team before the nomination process is over.