India's Under-17 footballers refuse to listen to Bhaichung Bhutia

Kolkata, Jan 28: Such incident happened probably for the first time in recent history of Indian football. A bunch of junior footballers, aged 17 years old only, had unanimously stopped 2 ace Indian footballers Bhaichung Bhutia and Renedy Singh from trying to convince them to train under their German chief coach Nicolai Adam.

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The Indian under-17 footballers who have been preparing for the Under-17 World Cup, to be held in India in October this year, had a miserable show in Granatkin Cup in Russia, losing all the matches and finishing at the bottom of the table.

But instead of facing criticism for the team's poor performance Nicholai had to face the wrath from All India Football Federation (AIFF) for being allegedly involved in physical abuse of the footballers in his team. Bhaichung and Rennedy were asked by the AIFF president to talk to the junior footballers as well as to know the truth.

It was learnt that Bhaichung had tried to convince the boys, citing example of famous conflict between Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham in Manchester United. But the boys refused to accept Bhaichung's words.

One of the top AIFF officials, commenting on the issue said, "A lot of footballers in the Under-17 national team revealed on condition of anonymity that Nicholai used to throw abusive languages towards the players. He even had beaten the footballers sometimes when they made some mistake on the field."

The AIFF has decided to terminate the contract of the German coach with immediate effect. But at the same time with 9 months left for the commencement of Under-17 World Cup, the federation's top brass seems little bit of worried about bringing in a quality foreign coach for the team.

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