Kolkata: Igor Stimac and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) are set to settle. AIFF will pay the former India head coach $400,000 (approximately ₹3.36 crore) after tax, an official at the federation confirmed to HT. Not allowed to speak to the media, the official did not want to be identified.
Once given the condition that he would get an extension for one tournament should India make the quarter-final of the Asian Cup – this when they had never qualified for successive editions and finished last in the group when they did in 2011 and 2015 – the huge payout means Stimac, 57, will be leaving on his terms. He will also be the first India coach to be compensated for what he has claimed to be termination without a just cause.
AIFF will have to pay Stimac in a season it has pruned the competitions’ budget by nearly ₹20 crore and saving on cost was one reason why Manolo Marquez being in charge of the senior men’s team and FC Goa was okayed.
Stimac was sacked on June 17 after India failed to make the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. AIFF had then offered three months’ salary as compensation. Stimac refused and went to FIFA last month claiming $920,000 (approximately ₹7.72 crore) as two years’ salary from AIFF. Despite that, AIFF continued negotiations over the phone and on email through deputy secretary-general Satyanarayan Muthyalu and new secretary-general Anilkumar Prabhakaran.
Stimac turned down offers to settle for five and then 10 months’ salary. According to correspondence between Stimac and AIFF, accessed by HT, the former Croatia international pointed out that as per his contract, which ran till June 2026, he was to be paid $30,000 (nearly ₹25.19 lakh) per month till June 2025 and $40,000 ( ₹33.6 lakh approximately) every month for one year after that.
“In my last email I clearly stated that I am ready to accept 50% of the amount ($460,000) if all is paid until September 1, 2024,” Stimac wrote in the last week of August. In the same email, Stimac made “my last proposal” of $400,000.
AIFF replied saying it would need approval of the finance committee and the executive committee. The officials in charge of negotiations then asked if Stimac would agree to $350,000, “as you are aware of our financial situation.”
Stimac refused. “I am quite convinced that the human side of my personality has been shown when I decided to make it much easier for you reducing my demand from $920,000 to $400,000,” he wrote. “I am quite sure no coach in the world would do the same after being treated so badly by the AIFF president.”
AIFF replied saying it agreed that Stimac had been fair in the negotiations and that it was accepting his offer. An executive committee member said it approved the payout at a virtual meeting on Wednesday. The documents were signed by Stimac on Friday, his birthday.
