Houghton to face AIFF panel tomorrow

National coach Bob Houghton will face the AIFF set-up Special Panel at Football House in Dwarka, New Delhi tomorrow to present his case in the three point show cause notice send out to the coach last month. The Englishman is well prepared for the hearing and is set to present his side of the story on the three points which the federation holds against him.

The AIFF Panel is set to contain Vice-Presidents Subrata Dutta and Ankur Datta as well as Treasurer Hardev Jadeja. Originally the panel was supposed to also contain the federations president Praful Patel, but if he will part of the proceedings is unknown at this stage. After the hearing the panel will give its recommendations to the Executive Committee to decide on the future course of action.

As things stand at the moment Bob Houghton has a contract still running for over two years until mid-2013. He is on a monthly salary of US$ 20,000 and if the AIFF fire him then normally there is a settlement which would entitle the coach to most of his pending salary, but with the AIFF bringing up the allegations and the show cause notice the whole issue has reached a whole new level. And Bob could ask for compensation due to false allegations. If not sorted out between the two parties then it could go to the AFC and FIFA, which would hurt our reputation.

The show cause notice was a letter containing three points, the first-ever such letter send out by the national federation to one of its coaches. The first point is alleged racial abuse against Indian referee Dinesh Nair, who was the fourth official in the India vs Yemen international friendly last October in Pune. After the game Nair alleged that Houghton had referred him as a 'Bastard Indian Referee' and therefore lodged an official complaint with the match commissioner. In the meanwhile the national team has send in a signed letter to the AIFF in support of Bob and against the allegations of Dinesh Nair.

Point two is India's poor performance in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup and in earlier international friendlies in September/October 2010. India conceded 13 goals against Australia, Bahrain and South Korea in Qatar; which according to the AIFF Technical & Executive Committees isn't acceptable especially due to the high cost involved in the teams preparations.

The third point mentioned is the open criticism by Bob Houghton against the AIFF in the national and especially international media before and during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. The lack of infrastructure and professionalism in administration where the main points mentioned by Bob why Indian football hasn't developed over the years. And it seems the AIFF isn't happy about its deficiencies being exposed openly infront of the world media.