In a setback to Indian football, the world regulator of the game FIFA announced the suspension of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on August 16. More disheartening for the Indian football fans about the suspension announcement by FIFA is that U-17 Women’s World Cup, which was to be hosted by India in October, remains in limbo.
Why Did FIFA Suspend AIFF?
The world football regulator said the reason for the federation’s suspension was the “undue influence from third parties”, referring to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA).
What Is CoA?
The Supreme Court constituted a three-membered CoA including former Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi, Justice (Retd) AR Dave and Bhaskar Ganguly in June this year to take over the affairs of the national federation. The committee was constituted following the removal of AIFF’s president Praful Patel, also a sitting Rajya Sabha member and former minister.
Patel was removed from his post for not conducting elections in the federation, which were scheduled in December 2020, on the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing court case for revising the constitution of the body.
What Were FIFA’s Objections To CoA?
As per ESPN, FIFA’s decision that the world body initially “had no objection to the Supreme Court's initial intervention to form the CoA or the functioning of the CoA itself” However, things probably went wrong when deviations took place from what was informed to FIFA.
While it was decided by the CoA to finalise the new constitution of AIFF before July 31 this year and then hold the election for the top post, several states challenged the draft constitution in the Supreme Court, delaying the further process. It was then decided to hold the elections first but the CoA-crafted constitution sought equal representation of the State football associations and “eminent” football players, 36 each, in the electoral college.
FIFA wrote a letter to the Sports Ministry in early August raising its concern on the same and advising to include at most 25 per cent of the members of the electoral college as football players. In the letter, it also warned that the AIFF could face suspension. But on August 15, the CoA announced the list of 36 footballers to be included in the electoral college, defying FIFA’s objections.
On August 16, FIFA announced AIFF’s suspension.
What CoA Has Said?
The CoA has expressed disappointment over FIFA’s decision calling it “unfortunate”. “The CoA is surprised that the FIFA decision has come when extensive discussions were going on for the past few days between all stakeholders,” the body said in a statement.
What Happened So Far?
SC heard the case on AIFF’s work on August 17. It asked the government to take “proactive steps” to ensure AIFF gets its recognition back which is essential to hold the U-17 Women’s World Cup in October.
The court deferred the hearing till August 22 at the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. Mehta said that the government has had talks with FIFA not to cancel the World Cup and restore the status of AIFF.
On the August 22 hearing, the Centre requested SC to end the tenure of CoA and direct that the day-to-day management of AIFF be looked after by the AIFF administration led by the acting Secretary General.
It also requested Supreme Court to pass an order to direct the CoA to submit the final draft constitution for the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to the Court by the end of August 23 and that the mandate of the CoA be declared to be over in full from that day.