NEW DELHI: Shaji Prabhakaran, former FIFA South Central Asia Development Officer, was Sunday elected president of the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA) for a four-year tenure.
Besides Prabhakaran, veteran football administrator NK Bhatia was elected treasurer in the DSA’a annual general body held here Sunday.
Prabhakaran defeated rival presidential candidate Sharafatullah by a margin of eight votes (39 to 31).
Besides these two principal office-bearers, Magan Singh Patwal, Jagdish Malhotra and Rajesh Joshi were also elected unopposed as joint secretaries.
The six vice-presidents elected were Anadi Barua, Anuj Gupta, Hem Chand, Syed Khurram Raza, Shonal Gupta, and Sq Ldr SK Singh.
The 10 elected executive members were Anand Dabas, Bankim Datta, Benny Joseph, Hafiz Shahid, Har Gopal, Jaspal Singh, Kamal Suman, Mohd. Aslam, Sunil Dutt and VC Bhatt.
As many as 70 council members attended the AGM presided over by outgoing president Subhash Chopra.
Outgoing secretary Syed Shaheen convened the meeting.
Retd High Court Justice SR Singh and District Judge Nagar were the returning officers for the elections.
AIFF observer Retd Col Brij Mehta supervised the elections.
The newly-elected DSA president told PTI his new role will be tougher than the being FIFA’s development officer for South and Central Asia, a post he held earlier.
Prabhakaran has been involved in football administration for several years and been associated with the sport in Delhi for a little more than a decade. Delhi football is at a virtual standstill with the local league losing its sheen and no representation at the national level, apart from ISL side Delhi Dynamos.
Prabhakaran said his first task will be to bring structure to Delhi football. “It’s a big honour for me to be elected as DSA’s president. It’s the most challenging job I have had since I have to start from scratch. But I look forward to the challenge of making Delhi the hub,” Prabhakaran told the newswire.
