Baichung Bhutia not dejected after humiliating loss of 1-33 in AIFF prez polls

Gangtok: Accepting his defeat in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) presidential polls, former Indian soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia on Friday pledged to keep working for betterment of soccer.

"I accept my defeat with humility.I have been a servant of football for more than two decades and will continue (in the same spirit," Bhutia said after losing the battle for the top post of the country's soccer governing body to Kalyan Chaubey.

Bhutia, who lost 33-1 in the vote count to the former custodian, thanked the sole association that voted for him.

"I understand my followers and well wishers are upset.I am very grateful to everyone... I have been striving to clean football in Sikkim and at the national level.I will keep working towards the betterment of football," Bhutia was quoted as saying in a media release by Hamro Sikkim Party, which he leads.

Meanwhile, BJP Sikkim unit spokesperson Raju Giri condemned claims by a "certain political party" that his party had put political pressure on Bhutia to withdraw from the race.He described as "baseless" the claim that Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told Bhutia over phone to withdraw in favour of Chaubey.

"The 35 associations are from different states and union territories. They are not governed by the same party. For instance, West Bengal is ruled by the Trinamool Congress. So how can such things be possible?" he asked.

Will take Indian football forward together with all stakeholders involved: Chaubey

Newly elected president of All India Football Federation Kalyan Chaubeyon Friday said that they will engage with all stakeholders to take Indian football forward together.

Forty-five-year-old former goalkeeper Chaubey said this after being voted to the top post by
defeating former India captain Baichung Bhutia in an election.

“At the outset, we will work on a short-term plan, and will then meet in Kolkata later this month,” he informed. “We have fought in the Supreme Court together for the last 19 months, and it has taken up a lot of time, effort, and resources from everyone to reach this stage,” he added.

“I want to involve all eminent footballers to work on the different challenges Indian football is facing today, and to realise the dreams of the respective states. After 100 days, we plan to unveil the roadmap for Indian Football and take the next step,” he said.

After being elected Chaubey said that he had received a call from the FIFA president Gianni Infantino.“I received a call from the FIFA President. He wanted to meet me in Zurich or Doha later this year.

I briefed him the importance of the next few days. We have the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup India 2022 next month, and told him that we need to discuss amongst ourselves how we plan to take things forward. We will then present our plans to him in detail,” Chaubey said.

“The FIFA President also told me that he was impressed with our honourable Prime Minister’s interest in Indian Football, and the support Shri Narendra Modi-ji has been extending to the sport.”

“We plan to reach out to various schools to extend our outreach at the grassroot level. Hence, we will also have detailed discussions with Sri Anurag Thakur ji (Minister of State for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Minister for Information and Broadcasting), Shri Dharmendra Pradhan-ji, and the HRD Ministry.”

The President also spoke about his rival in the election, former India footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, saying his views are also welcome in the efforts to take Indian Football ahead. “Bhaichung’s contribution to Indian Football can never be forgotten. I will definitely welcome his views, and take everyone’s views into consideration.”

While Chaubey was elected the president, NA Haris and Kipa Ajay were elected as vice president and treasurer respectively, along with 20 Executive Committee members (14 from State Associations and 6 co-opted former eminent players.(UNI)