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Lessons to learn from AIFF suspension

Damage control is on, and a solution may be found soon, but this should make a lesson clea
Last Updated 18 August 2022, 23:33 IST

The suspension of the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) by the international governing body for football, FIFA, was a time-bomb waiting to explode. But it could have been easily defused if all parties concerned had shown prudence in "setting the house in order". International sports governing bodies do not encourage third-party interventions in national federations, the reason cited by FIFA to justify its action. While the proactiveness of the Supreme Court in disciplining erring sports administrators is welcome, the court also needs to ensure that its directives help them conform to the universally applicable norms of global governing bodies. The court did well to unseat Praful Patel, who had been squatting for more than two years as AIFF president after his tenure had ended. It then appointed a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the federation, draft a new constitution in consonance with the National Sports Code, and conduct the long-pending elections within a specified timeline.

A joint delegation of FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation appeared to have no issues with the steps outlined by the court and the CoA’s roadmap to implement them. What irked FIFA was a deviation from this roadmap and the inclusion of 36 "eminent players" in the electoral college. The delegation had been assured that the elections would be held only after the draft constitution had been finalised, but the court told the CoA on August 3 to hold the polls on August 28 and then finalise the constitution. FIFA, which by then had received several complaints from state units about many clauses in the draft constitution, disagreed with this. It was particularly opposed to the presence of 36 players as voters, which would give equal representation to players and state units in the Executive Committee (EC). FIFA corresponded with the CoA, making it clear that player representation must not exceed 25% of the EC’s strength so that the power of the state units remains intact, in line with FIFA statutes. On August 15, however, the CoA went ahead and announced the names of 36 players, the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back and attracted an almost immediate letter from FIFA suspending AIFF.

Damage control is on, and a solution may be found soon, but this should make a lesson clear. It is that sports administrators are a close-knit community, and while they encourage efforts to run national federations according to local rules and regulations, they are unwilling to overlook actions that dilute the parent body's rules and authority. Hockey India, the Table Tennis Federation of India, and the Indian Olympic Association are also currently governed by administrators. The onus is on these committees to ensure that they too don’t attract sanctions like AIFF.

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(Published 18 August 2022, 17:33 IST)

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