NEW DELHI (June 03): The Supreme Court appoints. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) it sets up gets to work and ends up being more of a problem than a solution. The failed template created by the Vinod Rai-led CoA in the case of a recalcitrant Indian cricket board, that was high on talk and seriously low on worthwhile action, may well be repeated by the one that has been put in place to administer the All India Football Federation.
IF its recommendations are implemented in full that is.
Why so? Take the the draft constitution for the AIFF, submitted to the submitted to the Apex Court in January 2020 in a “sealed envelope” (a big thing in India) and made public now makes for “interesting” (more like baffling) reading. Take the joint efforts of what was then a two-person CoA led by former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi and ex-India captain Bhaskar Ganguly as evidence.
Point 33 of Article 1 of the draft states, “I-League is the seniormost top division league competition in India owned, operated and recognised by the AIFF.” Point 58 of Article 1 states, “Seniormost top division league shall mean the league competition owned, operated and recognised by the AIFF, that implements the principles of promotion and relegation, and meets all requirements prescribed by the AFC for being eligible to obtain a direct slot in the Asian Champions League.”
IF these specific recommendations were to be entertained by the Apex Court, it would upend pretty much all that has transpired in Indian football since 2014 when the Indian Super League was created by AIFF’s commercial partner Football Sports Development Ltd (the joint venture 65% majority controlled by Reliance that has Disney Star as a 35% minority stakeholder).
While it is nobody’s case that the creation of the ISL was without multiple flaws, the ground reality is that with the active engagement of football’s world governing body FIFA, continental federation AFC with the AIFF and FSDL, a roadmap for the future of Indian football has been laid down and is in motion. Said roadmap does NOT have the I-League as the “seniormost top division”. As for what it does have, it is all in the public domain and needs no rehashing as far as CoA’s draft constitution recommendations are concerned.
What is pertinent is that while it is a given that the CoA’s recommendations will face opposition from multiple quarters, would the Supreme Court rubber stamp the panel’s proposed constitution or not is the big question.
As for the current situation, on May 18 the Apex Court appointed its former judge AR Dave to head a three-member CoA (along with Qureshi and Ganguly) and tasked it with managing the affairs of the AIFF while a constitution in line with the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 was put in place and fresh elections held.
In a 2017 order, the SC had appointed a CoA comprising Quraishi and Ganguly to formulate the constitution of the AIFF in consonance with said National Sports Code.
The AIFF elections were due in December 2020 but the Praful Patel-led national body did not go ahead with the polls, citing the pending case in the Supreme Court regarding its constitution.
Patel completed his three terms and 12 years as AIFF president in December 2020, the maximum permitted to a national sports federation chief under the Sports Code.
The AIFF moved an application in the SC only a month before its elections were due, seeking “certain clarifications” on the status of its constitution, which was under scrutiny in the apex court since 2017.
PTI inputs on what has happened since 2014
Earlier, the ISL, jointly organised by the AIFF and its commercial partners, was granted the top-tier status at the expense of I-League, as part of structural changes in the domestic game in India.
That was after a roadmap was formulated in a meeting of the I-League and ISL clubs with the officials of the AIFF and the Asian Football Federation (AFC) in Kuala Lumpur in October 2019.
The officials of FSDL, the organisers of the ISL, were also present in that meeting.
The proposal was floated in June 2019 by the AIFF when it announced that the ISL would take over from the I-League India’s AFC Champions League qualifier slot from 2019-20, paving the way for ISL to become the country’s top-tier football competition.
I-League clubs had initially protested and asked for the introduction of promotion and relegation to allow them to take part in the ISL.
According to the roadmap, the promotion-relgation system will be introduced in the ISL from the 2022-23 season.
