AIFF president Praful Patel admits players’ complaint was reason for U-17 coach’s sacking
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AIFF president Praful Patel has revealed that India Under-17 coach Adam Nicolai was sacked on the back of complaints by the squad that he used abusive language towards them. He has also stated that finding a replacement for Adam before the World Cup will not be a difficult job for the AIFF.
 “It was unfortunate the way things happened. On behalf of the AIFF, I can say that we took the decision in the interest of the players,” Patel told The Hindu, in the aftermath of the sacking of Under-17 coach Nicolai Adam.
“We’ll obviously get a replacement and the new coach will take charge soon. We will have an interim coach to handle the team, but the replacement will take over the team by the end of February,” Patel added.
Adam had previously worked with the Azerbaijan U-19 national team and had guided them to the UEFA Elite Group. After the dismal show of the Indian colts in Moscow, he was quite critical in his statement and had said that the Indian players were no match for the physicality of their opponents, reported the Hindustan Times.
Appointed in early 2015, Adam's tenure as the coach of the side was not that impressive in the three home tournaments conducted last year. During the period, the team had failed to win a single game in the AIFF Youth Cup held in May. In the AFC U-16 Championship and BRICS Youth Cup in Goa in September and October of last year as well, Indian colts lost as many as five matches from the six games they played.
However, the Colts had shown major improvements as far as goal-scoring is concerned under Adam. Recently, the boys won 2-1 against junior MLS (Major League Soccer) side Orlando City U-17 in the States.Â
The Under-17 World Cup will be hosted from 6 to 28 October in India and will be the first time that India will host a FIFA tournament.
Although it has been speculated that the AIFF will struggle to find a good replacement for Adam before the World Cup, Patel downplayed that and said, “We have received a good number of applications for the job and we would soon begin the process of interviews. We are going to look at the best options available.”
He added, “The support staff should have informed the AIFF about the
