The long-running battle between the Indian National Football Federation (AIFF) and the clubs continues. After the King’s Cup 2023, important tournaments like the Asian Games 2023 are ahead, but there is no guarantee about getting footballers from the clubs. Meanwhile, a strange accusation was raised against the head coach of the Indian football team, Igor Stimac.

Recently, the Indian team entered the field without captain Sunil Chhetri in the King’s Cup. They finished the tournament without a medal after defeats against Iraq and Lebanon. The Indian football team will reach China for the Asian Games on September 16. Before this, allegations of disclosing important information about the team against the head coach Igor Štimac, have leaked.

Igor Štimac consulted an astrologer to pick his XI for the crucial Asian Cup Qualifiers against Afghanistan on June 11, 2022, in Kolkata, a news site reported. An official of the All India Football Federation introduced Igor Štimac to Delhi NCR-based astrologer Bhupesh Sharma. Bhupesh Sharma is the founder of the popular online astrology platform AstroBuddy.

48 hours before the Asian Cup Qualifier match against Afghanistan in Kolkata on June 9, 2022, Stimac sent a message to astrologer Bhupesh Sharma on his mobile. It reads, “Dear friend, you can check the chart for every player in the footballer’s list of June 11. The game will start at 8:30 pm.” The list mentioned by Bhupesh Sharma had 11 possible names for the match.

The astrologer writes down the name of each footballer along with who will play well or who won’t play well, and who is overconfident. It has even come to light that Igor Stimac sent several insider information on Indian football in more than 100 mobile messages to a former Croatian international and astrologer Bhupesh Sharma in May-June 2022. As a result, many officials do not take kindly to the fact that information about the Indian football team is leaked.