All India Football Federation condemned all the speculations which are going around about parting ways with National Team Coach Stephen Constantine after March 2019 in a statement today.

Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF stated, “It’s completely baseless and utter rubbish. We’re completely focused on AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 and the team has been performing excellently under Stephen Constantine having risen to 97 from 173 in the FIFA ranking within less than 4 years. It is sad that media is indulging in baseless and silly speculation before such an important tournament of the national team.”

He further added, “We all are focused on the massive tournament right now and we’ll only sit together to discuss this once his contract ends on 31st January 2019.”

Meanwhile, back in 2015, when the Briton took the charge of the Blue Tigers, they were ranked 173 in the FIFA rankings. Since then, they have experienced a meteoric rise to in the ladder to surge up to 97 in the latest-released FIFA rankings.

India is currently preparing for the forthcoming AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 in Abu Dhabi where they’ll face Thailand in their first match at the Al Nahyan Stadium on January 6, 2019.