The story so far: Late on August 15, world football’s governing body FIFA suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) indefinitely for “undue interference by a third party” in the process to finalise a new constitution and elect office-bearers. The third party in question was the Supreme Court of India-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), comprising Justice (retd.) Anil Dave, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and former Indian football captain Bhaskar Ganguly, formed in May to temporarily assume charge of AIFF after the previous establishment, led by president Praful Patel, was deemed to have overstayed the National Sports Development Code of India-mandated 12-year tenure. If AIFF’s suspension is not revoked in time, India will lose the rights to host the U-17 Women’s World Cup in October.
What constitutes undue interference?
International sports federations like FIFA view any governance structure where an unelected body wields power at a national sports federation like AIFF as third-party interference. In exceptional cases where such a body — in the present case, the CoA — takes charge, it is required to play a temporary, enabling role in line with the statutes of the international body. Ever since the CoA presented the draft constitution to FIFA on July 13, the latter has suggested multiple changes. Chief among them was a repeal of CoA’s decision to give players and State associations equal representation (50%) in the electoral college (36 votes each). The Sports Code mandates a minimum of 25% representation for players in decision-making roles. In a letter dated July 25, FIFA said, “Although we agree that the players’ voice needs to be heard, we are also of the view that the importance of the existing members of the AIFF should not be undermined. However, we understand the requirements of the Sports Code of India and recommend AIFF to bring in a presence of above 25% of the Eminent Players in the Executive Committee as Co-opted (nominated) Members.” FIFA didn’t approve of the fact that before the hearing in the Supreme Court on August 3, the CoA didn’t revise its equal representation clause. FIFA also took issue with the move to elect an interim body for three months just for the conduct of the World Cup, while the constitution is finalised parallelly. “We understood that the CoA would still play a role within the aforesaid interim mandate,” the FIFA letter conveying the suspension said, concluding that this too constituted “undue interference”.
