Manolo Márquez has left his position by mutual consent as head coach of India's soccer team after just one win in eight games and less than a year in the job.
The Spanish coach's only victory was in a 3-0 friendly over the Maldives in March. More important is qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup but a draw with Singapore and a 1-0 loss in Hong Kong in June has put India’s chances of a third successive appearance at the tournament in doubt.
“After careful evaluation, both coach Márquez and the federation recognized that the objectives we had set out to achieve a year ago were not progressing as intended,” Kalyan Chaubey, president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“Out of mutual respect and understanding, we agreed it was best to part ways. This decision was taken in the larger interest of Indian football.”
As well as being in charge of the national team, Márquez is also head coach of FC Goa, a leading club in the Indian Super League (ISL), and signed off with a Super Cup win with the club in May.
Although there has been criticism of Márquez holding both jobs, Chaubey the situation was not without precedent.
“I understand why that perception exists, but globally coaches like Alex Ferguson, Guus Hiddink, Dick Advocaat, and many others have held club and national roles simultaneously,” Chaubey said.
Shaji Prabhakaran, former general secretary of the AIFF, said that if India does not qualify for the Asian Cup, “it would be catastrophic for the development of Indian football.”
India, ranked 127th by FIFA, is at the bottom of its group behind Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangladesh.
“We are the highest-ranked team of the four, but we are last and need to win all four of the games left,” Prabhakaran said.
Prabhakaran disagreed with Chaubey and said Márquez should not have held both national and FC Goa jobs.
“The responsibility for this situation lies with the people who took the decision to hire a coach with dual responsibilities,” Prabhakaran said. “No coach can do two jobs at the same time, he has to work for the national team all the time and for the future of Indian football.”
That immediate future in India is looking uncertain at club level, too. The ISL, the top tier of the country’s domestic system, was set to start its 12th season in September, but that has been put on hold.
The 15-year contract between AIFF and commercial partner Football Sports Development Limited, which runs the ISL, is due to expire at the end of 2025 but there has, as yet, been no agreement on a new deal.
India’s Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on AIFF’s constitution later in July, and has told the federation not to enter into negotiations until then.
Amid such uncertainty, only six of the 13 ISL teams have confirmed participation in the upcoming Durand Cup, Asia’s oldest knockout competition, that starts later this month.
“Most of the ISL teams have declined to play because they are not ready,” Arshad Shawl, chief executive of Real Kashmir FC, a club in the second tier I-league said. “There is no clarity about next season and it is affecting the entire ecosystem."
Prabhakaran believes that the ISL deal should not have been allowed to reach this point.
“This should have been sorted a year ago,” he said. “Why wasn’t it concluded? I don’t know a country can be in a situation where we don’t know if the league will happen.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE -The India National team pose for a group photo prior to the Asian Cup Group B soccer match between Syria and India at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi), File)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
