The All India Football Federation has made an appeal to the Supreme Court for a review of its new constitution’s two debatable clauses before its adoption on 12th October.
The executive committee members, at a scheduled meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, have taken the decision for the review of petition of Articles 23 and 25. These two articles deal with amendments to the constitution and the Supreme Court’s control over it and concurrent memberships in the AIFF and state associations, respectively.
Following this decision, the matter was mentioned to the Court on Thursday, with the lawyer representing AIFF seeking “minor tweaks” to the two clauses. The judge decided to hear the matter again on Friday.
Article 25.3 (b and c) of the constitution, which the Supreme Court approved on September 19, prevents officials from holding administrative posts simultaneously in the AIFF and state associations.
“In the event a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in a Member Association, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association,” it is written in the constitution.
“Similarly, in the event that a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in a Member Association and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association.”
The apex court had reinstated this clause to “ensure that an official at the national federation is not overworked with responsibilities at a member association” after they were deleted by Justice LN Rao while formulating the constitution. Article 23.3 directs the AIFF to seek the Court’s permission before attempting to make amendments to the constitution, which some view as ‘third-party interference’ liable for sanctions from the world governing body FIFA.
State officials have pointed out that FIFA does not have any such provision of restricting state representation. Even it has been learned that they are willing to resign en masse from the executive committee in case the new constitution is adopted without changes at its special general meeting on 12th October.
A major chunk of the 16 Executive Commitee members are office bearers in state associations while several adopted members, all eminent players, have links to academies that amount to a conflict of interest.
In such a scenario, the federation could be left without an executive committee that could force elections before completion of the Kalyan Chaubey-led committee’s tenure in 20th September.
