New Delhi : Football Delhi President Shaji Prabhakaran has written a letter to the Secretary-General of the international football federation (FIFA), Fatma Samoura, urging her to send a high power delegation to India to meet with all stakeholders to have a dialogue after the Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a three-member committee to look after the functioning of All India Football Federation.
He said the delegation should hold a dialogue with Member Associations, the Committee of Administrators (CoA), and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS).
In his letter, Prabhakaran wrote, “As per the court order dated May 18, 2022, the Supreme Court of India has appointed a Committee of Administrators to manage the day to day affairs of the All India Football Federation. In this regard, I request you that any adverse measure must not be taken against India and FIFA must review the circumstance in its entirety before reaching any decision. Kindly consider the below-mentioned reasons.”
“The Supreme Court has appointed a Committee of Administrators, because of the Executive Committee functioning beyond their tenure. The court passed this order as there was no other way the Executive Committee could have been prevented from functioning further. The Supreme Court could not announce the conduct of elections, because the Statutes of the AIFF were under review since 2017, and the then AIFF did not move things to fast track the amendment of the Statues by approaching the ombudsman appointed by the Supreme Court in November 2017. It is a special case, and it was unavoidable, as it was against the spirit of good governance practices. This Supreme Court was thus left with no other option,” he wrote in a letter.
“Further, the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup is being hosted by India in October 2022, and any decision to move the tournament out of the country will have serious consequences on the tournament and the future of football in India.”
“For FIFA, India is one of the priority strategic destinations for the further growth of global football, and has invested substantially in the growth of the sport in the country, and any such decision would have an adverse impact on the country and the sport.”
“In the past 2 years, the Covid situation has hit the country hard, and if football is further stopped, there will be a severe impact on domestic football,” Prabhakaran concluded.
–IANS