KOLKATA: Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, who was appointed administrator at the All India Football Federation by the Delhi High Court this week, has said that elections to the AIFF would be announced at the earliest.
Quraishi told the Hindustan Times that he would use his month long experience as administrator at the Archery Association of India, to run the AIFF.
On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court declared the All India Football Federation elections of December 2016 invalid saying they were held without following the National Sports Code. The HC set aside the election of Praful Patel, who was last year elected as the president of All India Football Federation (AIFF) for a four-year term, his third successive tenure.
“We want the elections to be announced as early as possible and new office-bearers take over so that the development of football doesn’t come to a standstill,” Quraishi told HT, adding that it would take around two months for the AIFF to complete the electoral process. Quraishi also said he would examine all those eligible to vote and cross-check if there is any dispute at the state level.
HT also quotes a FIFA official as saying that the world governing body is awaiting an official communication from the AIFF about the setting aside of the elected AIFF body. The report alsod quotes AIFF general secretary Kushal Das as saying that
the AIFF will decide on its next course of action in consultation with its lawyers.
It is likely that the AIFF could challenge the Delhi HC order. The HT report quotes an unnamed AIFF office bearer as saying, “The same court that allowed the elections has now set it aside. Till we get the order, we would only be speculating. But if it was about getting five permanent members to propose a candidate, well, it is followed by Fifa and AFC (Asian Football Confederation). If, for the sake of argument, we say FIFA has many more members and hence has the five-proposer rule, the AFC has 47 member associations (including Kuwait which is now suspended), only 10 more than AIFF, and still needs five.”
Also read:
