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No termination clause in Marquez’s contract with AIFF

ByDhiman Sarkar
Aug 31, 2024 11:23 PM IST

Federation agrees to pay two years’ salary if Spaniard is removed before May 2026 on grounds of performance

Kolkata: Less than two months after All India Football Federation (AIFF) said a termination clause favouring it should have been in former head coach Igor Stimac’s contract, the one drawn up for his successor Manolo Marquez agrees to pay two years’ salary should the Spaniard be sacked for poor performance before May 31, 2026.

Manolo Marquez. (PTI)
Manolo Marquez. (PTI)

The fifth point in the AIFF circular dated August 18 reads: “At Mr. Marquez’s request, AIFF has agreed that payment of the entire amount for the first 2 years of the engagement would be guaranteed if the contract is terminated by AIFF for reasons other than Misconduct (sic) and material breach of the contract by Mr. Marquez. This request has been accepted as Mr. Marquez will be leaving an assured position at FC Goa to take up the position with the national team.”

Marquez, 55, was named FC Goa coach “on a multi-year contract” in 2023. AIFF has appointed him senior national team head coach from August 1, 2024 to May 31, 2026 with the provision for an year’s extension. That means for 2024-25, Marquez will be in charge of FC Goa and India.

Marquez’s first assignment with the national team will be the Intercontinental Cup which begins in Hyderabad on Tuesday when India play Mauritius. Also in the fray are Syria.

As per the “overview of key terms” of Marquez’s contract shared with the executive committee members – HT has seen the circular signed by Satyanarayan Muthyalu, then acting secretary-general – the head coach’s total salary till the end of his contract will be $407,000 (approximately 3.4 crore).

After deducting what has already been paid, AIFF will have to pay the rest should Marquez be removed before May 2026 for, say, India’s poor performance.

India will play the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers from March 2025. Apart from the Intercontinental Cup, India are scheduled to play in a three-nation tournament in October. They could also use the international window in November.

The terms of engagement between AIFF and Marquez is similar to Stimac’s contracts after October 2022. Prior to that, Stimac’s contracts had a clause that said should he be removed, AIFF would need to pay his salary (then $24,000) for three months as compensation. For Marquez, AIFF has kept that clause should he get an extension in 2026.

That clause was removed when Stimac’s contract was renewed in 2022 after Kalyan Chaubey took over as president. It was not included in the extension the Croat signed in October 2023.

Sacked last June after India failed to make the third round World Cup qualification, Stimac has moved FIFA seeking compensation for the rest of his contract till June 2026.

In its detailed rebuttal to Stimac’s no-holds barred press conference on June 24 soon after he was removed, AIFF had mentioned that his contract needed to have a “termination clause favourable to AIFF”.

“The specific instruction regarding inserting termination clauses favourable to AIFF were… not followed before executing the contract,” its statement in June had said.

“There is a difference in the two cases,” Satyanarayan told HT on Saturday. “In Manolo’s case, he had a contract with a club (FC Goa) for two years which he is leaving so that is a minimum safeguard that any coach will ask for.”

Stimac, according to the AIFF official, was not with any club when he joined in 2019. The clause’s removal, which had not been approved by the executive committee or the finance committee, was questioned by AIFF members, said Satyanarayan.

“Manolo’s contract terms were approved by the finance committee as well as the executive committee of AIFF,” he said.

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