The governing board of World Football body, FIFA has unanimously decided to suspend the All India Football Federation “due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA statutes”.
According to FIFA rules, federations must be free from legal and political interference.
Reports have it that the AIFF is in disarray and being run by administrators after former chief Praful Patel stayed in office beyond his term without fresh elections, which courts ruled invalid.
According to reports, fresh elections are to be held on August 28 and the poll process began has begun after India’s Supreme Court approved a timeline prepared by the administrators.
It’s imperative to note that the embattled nation is due to host the U-17 tournament on October 11-30 but FIFA has said that because of the suspension it “cannot currently be held in India as planned”.
The body said that it was “in constant constructive contact with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in India and is hopeful that a positive outcome to the case may still be achieved”.
Also, Indian men and women’s national teams cannot play junior or senior international games during the suspension.
In a swift reaction, former men’s captain Bhaichung Bhutia called the suspension “very harsh”.
In a chat with newsmen, he said “At the same time I think it’s a great opportunity to get our system right”
“And very important that all the stakeholders — the federations, state associations, sport ministry — come together to get the system right and everybody work for the betterment of the sport.”
On his part, India captain Sunil Chhetri advised his players “not pay too much attention” to the FIFA ban threat as the situation was out of their control.
FIFA said “The suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs”.
