New Delhi: The All India Football Federation mulled to show-cause Bhaichung Bhutia for his stinging criticism of president Kalyan Chaubey but stopped short of going ahead with it at its executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
During the meeting at the Football House, Bhutia’s comments on June 20 where he spit vitriol about Chaubey’s misgovernance were discussed at length, News9 Sports can reveal.
“The AIFF is a circus. As jokers are in power, it is bound to be a circus,” the former India captain and Ex Co member had said at a press conference in Kolkata.
“Kalyan downgraded the AIFF president’s post. After his playing days, he was put in directly at the post despite having no prior experience of governance and management.
“Not just footballers, sportspersons as administrators are being given a bad name by Kalyan as the AIFF president. Former players like us are being viewed in poor light.”
In his response through the AIFF’s social media platforms, Chaubey then urged Bhutia to attend Wednesday’s meeting to “express his views, raise concerns, and contribute constructively,” while pointing out that “he has consistently and deliberately made baseless allegations and presented a distorted image of the AIFF.
“Such actions not only tarnish the reputation of the Federation but also throw Indian football in a negative light on international platforms.”
Bhutia’s absence frowned upon
Bhutia preferred not to travel to Delhi and his no-show was also not viewed kindly by the executive committee.
The federation had initially planned to pull up Bhutia for showing AIFF in poor light and bringing the game into disrepute.
But after detailed discussions spanning over two days, it was decided not to carry through with the idea of issuing a show-cause notice as it could draw considerable negative reaction from the Indian football community.
“Not even a word was discussed on it today,” AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan claimed.
🚨 𝐀𝐈𝐅𝐅 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭’𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 🔊#IndianFootball ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/LhnQSfSJzi
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) June 20, 2025
The entire episode bemused Bhutia, who skipped the meeting as he didn’t want to be part of the decision to release Manolo Marquez, having initially objected to his appointment on a dual-coaching role with FC Goa.
“Since they didn’t pay heed to my objections then, I wasn’t willing to be a part of it,” Bhutia said, reminding that he had resigned from the technical committee as it was “bypassed” while appointing Marquez.
“I am not too sure if that could be the grounds for show-cause. If asking for investigation on the president leads to show-cause then it is shocking. In which constitution does it not allow to question the decisions of the president?,” he wondered.
At AIFF elections in September 2022, Chaubey had defeated Bhutia to become the president.