Bhaichung Bhutia

New Delhi: All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary Alberto Colaco on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of Bhaichung Bhutia joining the national camp beginning in Calcutta on August 4, unless chief coach Bob Houghton decides to call up the ace striker.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the AIFF secretary said that the federation at the moment has no plans of recalling Bhutia for the Asia Cup qualifiers’ camp.

“We are not in a position to include or exclude any footballer from the camp. Houghton needs to be consulted before bringing any change in the list of campers.”

Bhutia, who captained India in the first two Asia Cup matches in February and March, did not join the camp for the four-nation meet in Vancouver and expressed his desire to call it a day from international football.

He even spoke to the AIFF president, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, who exempted him from playing in Canada, but requested him to postpone the ‘retirement’ decision till the Asian Games in December.

Colaco said the present list has been prepared by Houghton. “The coach, I believe, had a talk with Bhaichung during the camp for the Canada tournament in Goa. I am not aware of what transpired between the two, but Bhutia’s name did not figure in Houghton’s list.”

The AIFF secretary said he was unaware whether Bhaichung now is willing to join the camp. “Nothing can be judged on newspaper reports.

“The best thing for him would be to talk to the coach and the federation.”

Asked why a footballer like Jo Paul Ancheri, who has not been playing regularly for the past two seasons, has suddenly been called for the camp, Colaco said it was the decision of the coach.

“Perhaps someone from the technical committee told the coach about Ancheri. So he wanted to have a look at him.”

Meanwhile, the AIFF is likely to chalk out a policy decision very shortly on recruiting players of Indian origin to strengthen the national teams.

The decision would be taken in line with the Fifa guidelines and the law of the land.