FIFA blocks India, says can’t host under-17 World Cup

The unprecedented move means that for the first time in 85 years, all teams from India are barred from playing internationals or friendlies. It also puts in jeopardy the women’s under-17 World Cup scheduled to be held in the country in October.

Football’s apex body on Tuesday suspended India as a member, flagging “interference by a third party” in the running of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) — an unprecedented move that bars all teams from the country from playing internationals or friendlies for the first time in 85 years, and puts in jeopardy the women’s under-17 World Cup scheduled to be held in India this October.

(AFP)

The decision also opens a long-running debate in Indian sport administration between autonomy and good governance of national federations, even as the matter is set to be taken up by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

FIFA’s decision stems from decisions taken by a Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators (CoA) that has been running the day-to-day affairs of AIFF since May, following a dispute over its former president Praful Patel’s term being declared in violation of tenure rules laid out by India’s national sports code.

“The Bureau of the FIFA Council has unanimously decided to suspend the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes,” said a letter released by football’s world government body.

“The suspension means that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place in India on 11-30 October 2022, cannot currently be held in India as planned,” it added.

Hours later, the Union government approached the Supreme Court, asking that the matter be heard urgently in light of FIFA’s decision. A bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and AS Bopanna has agreed to take up the matter on Wednesday as the first item on the board.

“Yesterday morning, there has been some fresh development in the matter. The Geneva-based FIFA Council has taken a decision. I will circulate that letter. It is not addressed to us but has been put out in the public domain. Our only request is that the matter may not be deleted from the list tomorrow (August 17),” solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the top court.

The bench assured Mehta, “It is there on the list as the first item.”

The FIFA statement said that the “suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs”.

“FIFA is in constant constructive contact with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in India and is hopeful that a positive outcome to the case may still be achieved,” it added.

Incidentally, the suspension came on a day when a division bench of the Delhi high court appointed a committee of administrators to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

Unless the suspension is reversed, FIFA’s decision nixes ATK Mohun Bagan’s chance to play in the interzonal semi-finals of the AFC Cup, an intercountry Asian competition, next month. The Asian Football Confederation has also informed AIFF that Gokulam Kerala can’t represent India in next week’s Asian women’s club championships. The champions of the Indian women’s league are in Uzbekistan for the August 23 start to their campaign.

The suspension also means the senior men’s team’s friendlies against Singapore and Vietnam scheduled next month stand cancelled. India will also miss the AFC under-20 men’s qualifiers, where they are grouped with Iraq, Australia and Kuwait, scheduled for September in Basra.

Though India will stay internationally isolated, domestic football can continue. The 131st Durand Cup, which kicked off the Indian season, began in Kolkata on Tuesday. But the suspension means that no international transfers will be permitted for clubs, even though there are two weeks to go for the summer window to close.

An official in the Union sport ministry confirmed that it has been in touch with FIFA. The sports ministry held two meetings with FIFA representatives on Friday and Monday in the presence of CoA, where the contentious issues of “third-party intervention and electoral college” were discussed, the official said. The official requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“It was a favourable conversation and therefore it came as a surprise when the ban was imposed. The FIFA representatives, however, informed us that since the decision was already taken by the FIFA council, it cannot go back on it. We are hopeful of finding an early solution,” the official added.

Members of CoA, appointed the by Supreme Court in May to run AIFF, said they were surprised by FIFA’s decision. The CoA is a three-member body headed by retired Supreme Court judge AR Dave, with former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi and former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly as its members.

CoA chairman Justice (retd.) Anil Dave said, “It is unfortunate to see such a directive by FIFA during a time when all efforts were being made to put Indian Football back on the right track. That being said, we are constantly in talks with all the stakeholders, including FIFA, to find the correct solution to this situation, and get the ball rolling once again.

A letter sent by FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura to AIFF to communicate its decision refers to the Supreme Court’s May 18 order that led to CoA taking charge of AIFF, and the top court’s decision to hold elections for office-bearers in three months once the constitution is finalised.

It also mentioned that AIFF’s electoral college was changed by CoA to accommodate former internationals, and alluded to an earlier correspondence by Samoura and Windsor John, the general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), that flagged deviations from the road map agreed upon during a visit to New Delhi in June.

The information, Samoura says, was conveyed to the FIFA Council, its main decision-making body. The bureau comprises FIFA president Gianni Infantino and presidents of six confederations. The council decided to suspend India in accordance with clauses in FIFA statutes, the letter said.

“As a consequence, and in accordance with article 13 of the FIFA Statutes, AIFF loses all its membership rights as of 14 August 2022 until further notice. AIFF representative and club teams are therefore no longer entitled to take part in international competitions until the suspension is lifted,” Samoura’s letter said.

The ban will stay till the CoA’s mandate is “repealed in full”; AIFF’s administration is “fully in charge” of managing the daily affairs of the federation; the constitution is in line with FIFA and AFC statutes; and is approved by AIFF’s general body without any interference from “any third party” and elections held based on AIFF’s “pre-existing” membership status, it added.

The saga goes back to 2017, when the Delhi high court, on a petition by senior advocate Rahul Mehra, annulled Patel’s election in December 2016 as AIFF president for a third successive term for not in keeping with the national sports code’s cap on tenures.

After a legal battle, on May 18 this year, a Supreme Court order forced Patel and his executive committee to quit, and appointed the three-member CoA to run the daily affairs of AIFF. The following month, a FIFA-AFC team came to India to assess the issue and set a July 31 deadline to the new constitution and a September 15 deadline for elections.

But the clauses of the new draft constitution were deemed “discriminatory and illogical” by AIFF’s state units because of several changes – most notably that eminent players will form 50% of the electoral college, and not 25% as FIFA recommended.

“Very unfortunate that FIFA has banned Indian football and at the same time, I feel it’s a very harsh decision of FIFA to ban Indian football,” Bhaichung Bhutia told PTI. “But at the same time, I feel it’s a great opportunity for us to get our system right. It’s very important that all the stakeholders -- the federation, the state associations, to come together and get the system right and everybody work for the betterment of Indian football.”