Manolo Márquez has left his position by mutual consent as head coach of India’s soccer team after just one win in eight games and less than a year in the job.
The Spanish coach’s only victory was in a 3-0 friendly over the Maldives in March. More important is qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup but a draw with Singapore and a 1-0 loss in Hong Kong in June has put India’s chances of a third successive appearance at the tournament in doubt.
“After careful evaluation, both coach Márquez and the federation recognized that the objectives we had set out to achieve a year ago were not progressing as intended,” Kalyan Chaubey, president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“Out of mutual respect and understanding, we agreed it was best to part ways. This decision was taken in the larger interest of Indian football.”
Held two jobs
As well as being in charge of the national team, Márquez is also head coach of FC Goa, a leading club in the Indian Super League (ISL), and signed off with a Super Cup win with the club in May.
Although there has been criticism of Márquez holding both jobs, Chaubey the situation was not without precedent.
“I understand why that perception exists, but globally coaches like Alex Ferguson, Guus Hiddink, Dick Advocaat, and many others have held club and national roles simultaneously,” Chaubey said.
Shaji Prabhakaran, former general secretary of the AIFF, said that if India does not qualify for the Asian Cup, “it would be catastrophic for the development of Indian football.”
India, ranked 127th by FIFA, is at the bottom of its group behind Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangladesh.
“We are the highest-ranked team of the four, but we are last and need to win all four of the games left,” Prabhakaran said.
Prabhakaran disagreed with Chaubey and said Márquez should not have held both national and FC Goa jobs.
“The responsibility for this situation lies with the people who took the decision to hire a coach with dual responsibilities,” Prabhakaran said. “No coach can do two jobs at the same time, he has to work for the national team all the time and for the future of Indian football.”
Issues also at club level
That immediate future in India is looking uncertain at club level, too. The ISL, the top tier of the country’s domestic system, was set to start its 12th season in September, but that has been put on hold.
The 15-year contract between AIFF and commercial partner Football Sports Development Limited, which runs the ISL, is due to expire at the end of 2025 but there has, as yet, been no agreement on a new deal.
India’s Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on AIFF’s constitution later in July, and has told the federation not to enter into negotiations until then.
Amid such uncertainty, only six of the 13 ISL teams have confirmed participation in the upcoming Durand Cup, Asia’s oldest knockout competition, that starts later this month.
“Most of the ISL teams have declined to play because they are not ready,” Arshad Shawl, chief executive of Real Kashmir FC, a club in the second tier I-league said. “There is no clarity about next season and it is affecting the entire ecosystem.”
Prabhakaran believes that the ISL deal should not have been allowed to reach this point.
“This should have been sorted a year ago,” he said. “Why wasn’t it concluded? I don’t know a country can be in a situation where we don’t know if the league will happen.”
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