NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday removed Shaji Prabhakaran from the post of AIFF secretary general with immediate effect.
AIFF released a statement announcing that Prabhakaran’s contract has been terminated due to “breach of trust”.
No details or elaboration was offered, however, on the nature of said “breach of trust”.
The decision was taken by AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey with the AIFF’s executive committee set to provide the final approval.
The AIFF statement read: “The All India Football Federation hereby announces that the services of Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran have been terminated due to breach of trust with immediate effect as of November 7, 2023.
“The AIFF deputy secretary, Mr M Satyanarayan, will take charge as acting secretary general of AIFF with immediate effect.”
Prabhakaran was appointed to the role of AIFF secretary general last September, replacing Kushal Das, as part of the new regime under Chaubey, who is politically affiliated with the ruling BJP at the Centre.
Prior to his taking up the high profile role in AIFF, Prabhakaran was serving as the president of Football Delhi.
AIFF vice-president NA Haris told PTI that there has been a “trust deficit” between Chaubey and Prabhakaran and even the AIFF executive committee members are not happy with the way the sacked secretary-general worked.
A meeting of the executive committee has been called here on Thursday and the members are expected to be officially apprised of the development, besides discussing other matters.
Haris said there is no need for the AIFF executive committee to ratify the decision of the president.
“The post of the secretary-general is a paid post and he was not appointed by the executive committee. The president has the power to appoint and remove the secretary-general. So the president issued the termination letter,” said Haris.
That Haris’ reasoning may defy all norms of corporate governance would probably be lost on most top officials of sports bodies in India.
In the last 12 months, AIFF sought to revive the once-prestigious Santosh Trophy by taking the final stage of the tournament to Saudi Arabia. The men’s national team also broke into the top 100 FIFA rankings for the first time since 2018.
