Football under administration
Apex court appoints a three-member panel of administrators to run the game in India and pave the way for pending elections
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (COA) on Wednesday to run the All India Football Federation and virtually revoked the powers of its governing body headed by president Praful Patel.
Underlining the current state of affairs in AIFF, the apex court appointed its former judge AR Dave to head the panel that will run the federation. The focus of the court’s order was to draw up a new constitution and hold pending elections to the body. However, this opens up the possibility of a ban by Fifa (international football federation) if the actions of the COA pursuant to the Supreme Court’s order is construed as third-party interference in running the sport by the international body.
It could then mean cessation of international football till the ban is revoked. That could mean the under-17 women’s World Cup, scheduled from October 11-30, will be taken away from India. India’s 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled in Kolkata next month, could also be jeopardised. The AFC Cup group matches that began in Kolkata on Wednesday could suffer. Till press time, Fifa did not react to an email sent by this paper.
This year, Fifa banned Kenya and Zimbabwe for government interference in running their federations, and Russia for waging war on Ukraine.
The Supreme Court had on May 12 agreed to hear a plea of the Delhi Football Club alleging the illegal continuation of a committee and Praful Patel as president of AIFF despite expiry of his term in December 2020.
Patel completed his three terms and 12 years as AIFF president in December 2020, the maximum permitted to a national sports federation (NSF) chief under the government’s sports code.
In Wednesday’s hearing, the bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices Surya Kant and PS Narasimha directed that the COA, with former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi and former India football captain Bhaskar Ganguly as members, shall run the federation until a new body is elected in accordance with a new AIFF constitution.
“The committee of administrators shall carry out day-today governance of the All India Football Federation”, it said, adding that the COA will be at liberty to take the assistance of the erstwhile AIFF committee to hold tournaments, select players and run the body.
The new constitution shall be vetted by the COA after receiving inputs from other members of the federation to ascertain that it complies with the norms of the National Sports Code and model guidelines, after the court’s approval.
“The current state of affairs is not in the interest of proper governance of the federation,” said the court. The COA will prepare the rolls to hold elections to the AIFF executive committee as per the new constitution, the court said, adding that it would prefer the new elected body to be in place by June 30.
The COA members shall be given space at AIFF’S Football House or in any other place of their convenience to carry out its affairs. “We would like to withdraw from the matter after the elections are conducted and there is a new body,” the bench said.
In 2017, the Delhi High Court set aside the election of Patel as AIFF president (in the 2016 AGM) on a petition by senior advocate Rahul Mehra. The Supreme Court stayed the high court decision in November 2017, allowing Patel to continue while appointing Quraishi and Ganguly as administrators/ ombdusman to prepare a new AIFF constitution. The draft constitution was readied by Qureshi and Ganguly in 2019, but the matter had not been effectively heard by the court until now.
On Wednesday, senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for AIFF, urged the bench to give the federation three months to finalise the new constitution and hold elections. Mehra countered: “These bodies are the fiefdom of some. It is an electoral college where ‘you scratch my back and I will scratch yours’ is the only principle. The suggestion from them is to derail the whole thing,” adding that a COA, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, must replace the existing governing body.
At this point, the bench remarked: “We appointed ombudsmen for preparing the constitution. We don’t want one party (AIFF) to circulate it only to raise objections. We will ask all parties to flag to us if there is a problem. We will not allow this federation to sit over the draft constitution. We have to first get an electoral roll prepared and then get an election conducted under supervision of a former judge.”
Divan retorted: “Such an exercise will be against the Fifa regulation. These are self-governed autonomous institutions.
Fifa is very sensitive about these issues. India may get de-registered by Fifa.”
The bench responded: “We will deal with Fifa too. There is no question of your federation vetting the draft constitution.”
FIFA regulations bar a federation or units affiliated to it from approaching a court of law for any relief. It mandates its members to seek arbitration to resolve disputes and obligates them to insert this clause in their constitution. Fifa statutes though do not specify a situation where a private citizen (Rahul Mehra in this case) takes the national federation to a constitutional court and the federation is then directed to comply with judicial orders.
Once the court order is in the public domain, Fifa officials from its administrative and legal departments will reach out to AIFF to inquire and AFC too will be asked for inputs. Fifa will also make independent inquiries. Their feedback could go to the Bureau of the Fifa Council, a body comprising Fifa president Gianni Infantino and presidents of the six confederations. The decision on any ban is taken by this body.