By Rahul Dixit
The decision of the International Football Federation (FIFA) to suspend India for “undue influence from third parties” smacks of a dirty agenda against a rising sporting power. While the FIFA has listed reasons that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was indulging in flagrant violations of the its Statutes, the haste in announcing the ban despite the matter being on discussion table with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) appointed by the Supreme Court gives rise to a conspiracy angle. It is a surprising development which can potentially damage the game’s prospects in India, for, the country stands to lose the Under-17 Women’s World Cup scheduled to be held from October 11. The prestigious event is now almost lost after the eleventh-hour FIFA decision to ban India. All of these factors and their timing force the Indian football fans and administrators to ascertain whether it was a planned move to malign the image of India.
A lot many factors have gone into the FIFA-AIFF story. The action was largely a fall-out of the AIFF executive committee’s adamant postures while delaying holding of elections as per the Constitutional requirements. The ousted president, Member of Parliament Mr. Praful Patel, stayed in office beyond his term citing a pending case over the issue of new AIFF Constitution. It ran contrary to the principles of good governance following which the Supreme Court had to step in and remove him from the federation. This changed the administrative system in the AIFF leading to the FIFA ban, first in India’s 85-year history. However, the point FIFA has clearly missed or deliberately ignored is the efforts of the CoA to bring in a positive change in the AIFF system by holding elections as per the new Constitution adhering to the National Sports Code, FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Statutes.
As per the timeline and presentation in the apex court, the CoA was in constant touch with the FIFA representatives and also had a fruitful meeting with the joint delegation of FIFA and AFC in June over the changes to be introduced in the AIFF ecosystem. The final draft constitution was also on the table for discussions and despite the contentional point of giving larger representation to players as voters, a middle-way out was on the cards with the intervention of the Supreme Court. Against the backdrop of all these developments the FIFA ban looks totally incomprehensible, for, the CoA was already on its job of putting Indian football back on the right track. A process was in its final stage to find a correct solution to remove an anomaly that was defeating the basic purpose of development of the game, yet, the FIFA chose the moment to pull the plug on the entire system itself.
The ultimate sufferers of the ban will be the players who have pinned high hopes after the resurgence of the game in various parts of the country. It will be a massive setback for Indian football if the FIFA does not repeal the harsh decision. The ban means no entry for the Indian national team or clubs to any international tournament and also no right to host international teams. No wonder the FIFA decision was termed “very harsh” by former captain Bhaichung Bhutia and “unfortunate” by ex-India star Shabbir Ali. Both the players know the importance of the hard yards that go into making a career in the game which stands at a much lower scale in terms of popularity. It was slowly but steadily climbing the ladder through good performance in international friendlies and the Asian tournaments, attracting eyeballs from the fans. In one stroke, the FIFA has undone all the good work unless it does a rethink and finds merit in the Supreme Court’s decision to bring in the CoA.
Meanwhile, the ban has also handed India an opportunity to get its house in order as regards to complying with the international federation mandates. Though the sporting systems differ from country to country which federations like FIFA find it difficult to understand, there has to be a mechanism in place which does not go in contravention of set norms. The CoA will also have to reflect on its working procedure, for, an emerging sporting power like India which has the solid backing of its Prime Minister cannot afford to cede even an inch to the opportunistic vultures.
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