Asian Cup Prelims: Did the Astrologer Pick the Indian Football Team Instead of the Coach? (image: twitter.com/Igor Štimac)

Indian football coach and former Croatian football manager, Igor Stimac, reportedly consulted an Indian astrologer to select the team for the Asia Cup qualifier in Kolkata last year. On June 9, 2022, about 48 hours before the crucial match with Afghanistan, the coach sent the following message to Bhupesh Sharma, an astrologer from Delhi NCR: “Hi dear friend, you can check charts for each player from the list for 11 June. Kick off time is at 20.30,” reports the Indian Express.

The list mentioned in the message refers to the list of the most likely names of 11 members for India to remain in contention for the acclaimed championship. Within hours, Sharma responded to the list of names with remarks on each player as “Good”; “can do very well. Needs to avoid over confidence”; “a below average day”; “a very good day for him but might get over aggressive”; “not recommended for the day,” quotes Indian Express. Sharma’s recommendation and shortlisting of players were based on the star alignment of the players.

The newspaper cites a series of exchanges between Stimac and Sharma as evidence of their continuing discussions and responses, and it shows about 100 messages exchanged between both during May and June 2022. As per the newspaper report, Kushal Das, former General Secretary of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), introduced Stimac to the astrologer.

Responding to the controversy, Stimac wrote on his social media handle that his dream of making India a football nation is still alive. On X (formerly twitter), he posted: “Target or honest fighter for the betterment of Indian football? The time is coming to put all cards on the table and see how much and who really cares about football in this country. Give it a thought before making up your judgment and thanks once again for your support.”

“My dream of making India a football nation is still alive,” he further added.