The report says Bajaj was announced as team manager without prior consultation and is unlikely to accept the role. That alone would raise eyebrows. At youth level, where structure and trust are everything, it raises larger concerns.
Bajaj also said: “I had to call the officials and ask if it was true. Only then they said: ‘Yes, this is going to happen. We will send the letter soon’.”
That is not the sound of a carefully built tournament plan. It is the sound of a federation reacting on the run.
The report says Bibiano Fernandes would remain coach, with Bajaj stepping in as manager. On paper, that may look like a compromise. In practice, it appears far less neat.
“I don't see the logic in appointing me as manager and Bibiano as coach together,” Bajaj said in the report. He also added: “Without any disrespect to Bibiano or his staff, I don't know them. If I don't know the people around me, how will I work in complete sync with them?”
In elite youth football, chemistry inside the staff is not a bonus. It is the foundation.
Bajaj’s sharpest point may be the simplest one: “Youth football is long-term planning. You don't start building a World Cup team two months before the tournament.”
That line should linger. Whatever happens with this reported appointment, the bigger question is whether the AIFF can now bring order to the process, settle the backroom structure, and give India U-15 a coherent run-in before October. That, more than any one job title, is the next storyline to watch.