Former Indian national team captain Baichung Bhutia chaired the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) Technical Committee Meeting at The Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.

Besides, Vice-Chairman Savio Messias, other Members namely Henry Menezes, Anil Kumar and Parvez Ziauddin were present in the Meeting. Prasun Banerjee, Parminder Singh, Lalnghinglova Hmar and AD Nagendran were granted Leave of Absence by the Chair.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das and Srinivas Murthy, Associate Director, National Teams, AIFF were also present.

The Committee reflected on India’s past performances (since 2011) in International Competitions across all age-groups at the AFC Level.

Furthermore, names of the next Head Coach, Indian Senior National Team; Head Coach, Indian U-17 National Team for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and the next Technical Director, AIFF, were discussed at length.

Ricki Herbert and Stephen Constantine have been shortlisted for the post of the Head Coach, Senior National Team while interviews with shortlisted candidates are to be conducted to appoint the Head Coach of the Indian U-17 National Team for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Keen in following the AIFF Masterplan ‘Lakshya,’ the Committee unanimously felt that Scott O’Donell was best suited to replace Robert Baan as AIFF Technical Director. The recommendation has been forwarded to the AIFF Executive Committee for further ratification and appointment.

“We zeroed down to a certain criteria while short listing the Head Coach of the Indian Senior National Team. We took into consideration the candidate’s experience with Indian football and also prior International experience while coaching a National Team. We will select one among either Mr. Constantine or Mr. Herbart soon,” Baichung told media persons at the end of the Meeting.

(Report courtesy AIFF Media)