Follow UsIndian head coach Igor Stimac received another red card in the game against Kuwait in the SAFF Championship 2023 and he will be out of the semi-final of the tournament if not more. However, as the fans and media present at the stadium saw the incident happen on the sidelines, Igor had to say something different about the situation.
Yesterday, during the post-match press conference, India's assistant coach Mahesh Gawli defended the head coach by saying that Igor was not responsible for the situation as it was the Kuwaiti players who kept on provoking him. Moreover, Gawli questioned the qualities of the referees of the tournament and asked SAFF to look into this matter.
What happened exactly on the sidelines | India vs Kuwait
Today morning, during a conversation with Dulal Dey, a senior journalist from Kolkata, Igor Stimac explained the whole situation. As per him, after Sandesh Jhingan's yellow card, he told the referee to do his job properly as the Indian defender is set to miss the next game of the tournament. And, for that, he was shown a yellow card by the referee.
Later, it was the Kuwait players who kept on abusing the Indian head coach and his family and came near the Indian reserve bench as well. Igor Stimac did not hold back and replied back to those abuses with his own style as well.
Now it was the fourth referee who then called the main referee and advised him to show Igor Stimac another yellow card which meant it would be a red card for the Indian head coach. However, interestingly, the Kuwaiti players were not shown a single yellow card by the referee.
Post Kuwait's goal, which was actually an own goal by India, most of Kuwait's reserve bench players went straight to the Indian bench and threw some gestures at them. Even after that, only two Kuwaiti players were shown a yellow card by the referee. Interestingly, both of them were unlikely to feature for them in any of the games.
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"Time has passed for India to be pushed:" Indian head coach Igor Stimac
Indian coach feels this can be a conspiracy against the Indian team. Indian team would be without Rahim Ali, Sandesh Jhingan and coach Igor Stimac on the sidelines for them. However, Igor is sure that the Indian team will reply with their football on the field.
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"My message is clear to everyone who does not understand how deep football needs to go on our way going forward with Indian football. The time has passed for India to be pushed and abused by others on the pitch. The time of that has gone. We need to fight those misusing power on the pitch against India," coach Igor Stimac stated.
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