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Indian striker Sunil Chhetri had recently talked about his retirement while referring to a possible FIFA ban on India after Supreme Court's ruling about Praful Patel's term as AIFF President which would be catastrophic as he is playing his "last games".
As reported by PTI, Chhetri was speaking to the media before the Asian Cup qualifiers final round beginning on 8 June, expressing his concern about the country possibly getting a ban. He said, “No matter what is happening on that front, I hope it is under control and the country does not get a ban.”
"Because, that will be catastrophic, not just for the whole country but for me, because I'm 37. I'm playing my last games. You never know when there's a last game for you. So yes... I was scared when the headlines came, it affects you. But with my limited knowledge, when you go into it, you understand that it is not that dangerous and things will subside," he added.
"I want to qualify. If I'm not there, my country will be there," Chhetri
Talking about the final round of the Asian Qualifiers, he talked about winning and qualifying for the next round. "I want to qualify. If I'm not there, my country will be there. If we don't qualify, then no matter who, none of us will be there. We want to be there," Chhetri added.
India in the qualifiers is grouped with Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia making them the favourites to qualify from Group D. The Blue Tigers will face Cambodia on 8 June. Then they will take on Afghanistan on 11 June and Hong Kong on 14 June in the round-robin stage.
"We had a very crazy graph which is what bothers me," Chhetri
Chhetri later also talked about the inconsistency displayed by the Indian team in their recent fixtures. While talking about the 1-2 loss to Oman and a goalless draw to Qatar in the World Cup qualifiers. He said, "The sad part of our team is that in the last four years, we had a very crazy graph which is what bothers me. We had a couple of performances, where we thought wow."
"Then you come and play against Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the two first games in SAFF. That's what bothers us as a team," he addressed about drawing against lower-ranked Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.