Houghton Resigns, AIFF Drops Racism Charge

Thanks for what you have done for Indian Football

After the AIFF dropped their racism charges against Bob Houghton the Englishman resigned as national coach of India. The end came faster then one would have expected, but the end result wasn’t a surprise anymore as Bob’s departure looked the only option left after the AIFF and Bob could not work together anymore.

The federation bosses and Bob Houghton held a meeting in New Delhi today and finalised the exit of the Englishman after the federation made it known to the coach that there was no definitive and concrete evidence in the racism allegations against him, which cannot be sustained and therefore the AIFF agreed to withdraw all charges and allegations made against him.

Thereafter Bob Houghton tendered his resignation . It seems he finally was fed up with the AIFF and its ways of working after being in the hot seat for nearly five years. Bob Houghton had come to India in June 2006 during the then summer FIFA World Cup and has had done some really good work with India winning the Nehru Cup twice in 2007 & 2009 besides the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup which led to India playing in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

There at the Asian Cup in Qatar India had to face Australia, Bahrain and South Korea which resulted in three defeats with a goal difference of 3:13, something which the federation and its bosses thought was not a good result and account of Indian football. Also Bob openly criticised the infrastructure and administration as the reason of India’s non-development in football.

This led to the federation digging up an old case of fake racism charges against Bob by fourth official Dinesh Nair in an international friendly last year. Interestingly this charge had been denied by Bob Houghton and then manager Pradeep Chowdhury, while no action was taken against Bob then. If any action will now be taken against the concerned match official will have to be seen.

While the AIFF has had its way of getting rid of Bob Houghton, the players surely won’t as they have often openly supported their coach over the last few years.

And Bob not only has been working on the senior national team, but he has over the years been forcing the AIFF to develop a youth development system and strategy. The Indian Arrows was one of those ideas and long foreign training camps not only for the senior national team but juniors as well to prepare them better for tougher continental competitions are amongst those ideas.

Thanks Bob for all you have done for our football! And all the best with your future coaching assignments.