Indian football is currently going through a resurgent phase having won the SAFF Championship recently and punching above their weight in the recently concluded King’s Cup.
Now amid all this, a report in The Indian Express has claimed that Igor Stimac, the coach of the Indian football team was in constant touch with an astrologer to finalise the playing XI for some crucial games. The coach reportedly shared information like the injury status of players and substitution strategies with a Delhi-NCR-based astrologer named Bhupesh Sharma.
In one purported conversation between the two, Stimac reportedly wrote, “Hi dear Bhupesh, it was a pleasure meeting you and discussing future work! I would kindly ask you to provide an opinion on the following players.”
After this purported message, Stimac shared the date, time, and place of birth of four players. Out of them, three players had represented India at the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
As per the Indian Express report, on June 9, 2022, Igor Stimac sent a message to Sharma. The coach reportedly sent this message hours before the Indian side was scheduled to face Afghanistan in a crucial Asian Cup qualifier in Kolkata.
In the purported message, the coach said, “Hi dear friend, you can check charts for each player from the list for 11 June. Kick-off time is at 20.30.”
As per the report, the list referred to in the message pertains to the names of the probable 11 for the crucial game. It was a must-win game in order for the Indian side to remain in contention for the prestigious continental championship.
In response, the astrologer replied with specific remarks against each player like –“Good”; “can do very well. Needs to avoid overconfidence”; “a below-average day”; “a very good day for him but might get over aggressive”, and “not recommended for the day”.
Subsequently, one hour prior to the kick-off on June 11, the Indian playing lineup didn’t include two established names whose stars were allegedly “unfavourable”, as per Sharma.
Going further, the Indian Express report claims that this was not a one-off incident, rather the duo exchanged close to 100 messages between May and June 2022. During this time frame, the Indian side played four matches. These included a friendly match against Jordan followed by three Asian Cup qualifiers against Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong.
As per the report, before each game, the former West Ham and Croatia player Stimac allegedly sought suggestions from the astrologer to finalise the team.
The report added that a top All India Football Federation (AIFF) official introduced coach Stimac to astrologer Sharma. Speaking to The Indian Express, the then secretary-general of AIFF, Kushal Das, admitted that he introduced Stimac to Sharma in May 2022.
He claimed that he met astrologer Sharma at a meeting and prior to that, Sharma had worked for a lot of telecom companies and Bollywood personalities. He added that as per their claims, it was said that his astrological timings could help people to make the right decisions.
The resurgent Indian football side under Igor Stimac
Under Croatian coach Igor Stimac (who represented his country when they finished 3rd in the 1998 France World Cup), the Indian Men’s team lifted the Intercontinental Cup and the SAFF Cup in short succession. The Blue Tigers have been improving their overall ranking (99th) and recently entered under 100.
The unbeaten run was beautiful while it lasted.
— IFTWC – Indian Football (@IFTWC) September 11, 2023
Team India will have to restart the record from scratch in the next match at the Merdeka Cup! pic.twitter.com/TIVvLNceG6
On the home soil, the Indian men’s side was unbeaten for 15 matches straight. Similarly, the women’s team defeated Kyrgyzstan over two legs to win their first round of Olympic qualifiers in April. On the back of a brilliant run by the main squads, the Sports Ministry gave exemptions to Under-23 teams to participate in the Asian Games in China.
