August 22 – Bowing to FIFA’s demands, India’s Supreme Court dissolved the three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Monday, returning day-to-day management to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), a decision that could allow India’s suspension from the global game to be lifted.
Last week, FIFA banned India from football for deviating from the FIFA-AFC roadmap to amend the AIFF constitution and stage fresh presidential elections following Praful Patel’s side-lining from the federation by the Supreme Court, but the suspension over ‘third-party interference’ left Indian officials, in particular the government, embarrassed as the country was stripped off the U-17 Women’s World Cup.
But on Monday the country’s highest court moved swiftly to meet FIFA’s demands and pave the way for India’s return to the global football fraternity.
A voice of reason in a muddled few months for Indian football, the Supreme Court repealed the CoA and returned management of the AIFF to acting secretary-general Sunando Dhar.
The court also moved the elections forward by a week. Only representatives of the state associations and union territories will be allowed to vote as a part of the electoral college.
While the Supreme Court returned control to the India’s football to AIFF, there is still a financial impropriety cloud hanging over the national federation.
The CoA legal counsel Gopal Shankarnarayan said that an “interim audit report of the AIFF has been submitted by Deloitte to the CoA…There are findings of siphoning off.” The court said that the government will look into the final report.
The Supreme Court’s intervention – at the speed of light by Indian standards – could prompt FIFA to lift the suspension and revisit their decision to take away the U-17 Women’s World Cup. The tournament had been scheduled for October and would have been the second FIFA finals in the country following the U-17 World Cup in 2017.
The suspension forced Gokulam Kerala to withdraw from the AFC women’s championship and the national team’s matches with both Singapore and Vietnam were cancelled because of the uncertainty.
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