NEW DELHI: With a July 31 deadline looming for the All India Football Federation to amend the statutes its constitution, the inevitable has happened. Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the AIFF’s commercial partners, Tuesday filed a suit in the Supreme Court challenging the “final” draft constitution submitted on July 13 by the Committee of Administrators.
Noting that the CoA has not taken into consideration their objections and “rejected” certain material suggestions, FSDL said in its 565-page court filing that certain clauses of the proposed draft have “totally disregarded” and “violated” the 15-year agreement it entered into with the AIFF in 2010. As per the agreement, FSDL pumps in over Rs 50 crore annually into the AIFF for exclusive rights and license to run the Indian Super League, among other things.
In its application to the Supreme Court, FSDL stated, “The Applicant, being an important stakeholder in Indian football, duly submitted to the All India Football Federation (“AIFF”), its comments and objections to the proposed Constitution of AIFF. As elucidated in detail hereinafter, it is the humble submission of the Applicant that the Committee of Administrators (“CoA”) has failed to take into consideration and has even rejected certain material suggestions and objections to the Constitution of the AIFF made by the Applicant herein.
“The Applicant is constrained to approach this Hon’ble Court as certain exclusive rights and entitlements granted in favour of the Applicant under a long-term agreement, i.e., the Master Rights Agreement dated 09.12.2010 (“MRA”) executed in the year 2010 by the AIFF are being totally disregarded and violated by virtue of certain provisions contained in the proposed Constitution of the AIFF. Further, the said provisions are also against the development and promotion of football in India.”
It bears noting that as per agreements currently in place, and which have been signed on to by not just Indian football’s stakeholders but also the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA, promotion to the Indian Super League (ISL) from the I-League is set to begin from the 2023-24 season and relegation from the 2024-25 season.
Meanwhile, objections from FSDL notwithstanding, a number of state football associations have also approached the top court over certain clauses in the draft.
A seven-member panel representing state FAs had earlier written to FIFA stating that many clauses of the draft constitution were “discriminatory and illogical”.
According to PTI, the states have objected to more than 20 clauses of which six are major ones. The states have objected to Article 20.2 which mandates that every state FA should have a former eminent player as one of the two voting members to the AIFF general body. The article restricts each eminent player to serve only one term on the general body.
While the draft constitution has no provision for a vice president in the 12-member executive committee, state FAs have demanded that the executive committee should have five vice presidents representing each zone.
State FAs have also objected to the clause which states that an office-bearer in the AIFF executive committee cannot be an office-bearer in a state association.
The constitution also bars office-bearers from being a member of any other federation or association (of a sport other than football) affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association directly or indirectly.
Shaji Prabhakaran, the Delhi Football president and a member of the state FAs’ seven-member committee said that states are willing to settle their differences for the good of Indian football.
“We need a constitution that does not disrupt the football structure in India (emphasis ours). There has to be give and take (in the drafting of the constitution). In the end, not everyone will get what they are looking out for. All stakeholders will have to keep the interest of Indian football above anything else. We cannot afford a Fifa ban, nobody wants a ban. In the end, we have to see whether the court orders are being followed in letter and spirit, as per expectations of the Supreme Court,” Prabhakaran told the Times of India.
For the record, a delegation of FIFA and AFC, which was in India recently, had set the CoA a deadline of July 31 to amend the statutes of the constitution. FIFA and AFC have stated that after the new constitution is adopted, a Special General Body Meeting of the AIFF must be called by August 5 wherein a date should be finalised for elections.
In case, the matter is prolonged and goes on beyond the deadline set by the FIFA-AFC delegation, the AIFF risks facing a ban from international football.
Of immediate concern of course is the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, which is to be held in India from October 11 through to October 30. Could the tournament be taken out of India? Highly unlikely. In fact, India’s hosting of the prestigious tournament might well hold FIFA back from acting quickly.
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