Kalyan Chaubey third politician but first footballer to head AIFF

Kalyan Chaubey became the first footballer to head the All India Football Federation (AIFF) but he is also the third successive politician to be elected president since 1988 after Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Praful Patel.

To the unstoppable sound of firecrackers, Chaubey left in his black limousine after beating Bhaichung Bhutia 33-1 in Friday’s elections and it will have to be seen whether the former footballer or the present-day politician or a combination of both steers AIFF.

Either way, AIFF would have been headed by a full-time politician because Bhutia is the founder of the Hamro Sikkim Party and like Chaubey has lost in both general and state elections.

Chaubey may rightly claim to be a player-president but that the build-up to his anointment had former sports minister and current law minister Kiren Rijiju attending a gathering of member states is proof that the twain shall always meet.

Congressman Manvendra Singh, who lost the vice-president’s election to NA Haris, was unsparing. “The interference continued through the process and culminated last night when union minister (Rijiju) exhorted the members that they should not vote for Bhaichung,” Singh told reporters on Friday.

In his media conference, Chaubey refuted the Singh’s charge as “plain lies”. But he said: “Give me one sports federation where politicians are not involved. I think I am known as a footballer first, politician later.”

It would also be interesting to see how Chaubey gets West Bengal and Kerala football associations on board, given those are football-mad states where BJP are in the opposition. “It will be tough, no doubt, but I hope everyone will work for the good of Indian football. I intend to work with everyone despite political differences,” said Chaubey.

Indeed, one doesn’t have to look beyond the new AIFF vice-president as far as the dissolution of political differences is concerned. Beating Singh 29-5 was Haris, a Congress MLA from Karnataka.

Bhutia left Football House as soon as the counting ended. “Congratulations to Kalyan, I hope under him we’ll be able to take Indian football forward. I have been working in football before the elections, I’ll continue after it too,” he said.

Undone by his own state federation and abandoned by one of the two associations who had pledged their support to him, Bhutia managed a solitary vote: from Andhra Pradesh.

As the Indian with most international appearance among those retired, Bhutia could be among the six eminent former players co-opted to the new executive committee, but his vacant chair in the front row served a stinging reminder of political clout lording it over claims of change. “I am not ready to think about it now,” Bhutia said about being on the executive committee.

“Bhaichung Bhutia’s stature in Indian football is unquestionable. Indian football will benefit a lot from his experience. I want to involve all eminent footballers to work on the different challenges we are facing today,” said Chaubey.

Way forward

Chaubey’s immediate priority will be the seamless conduct of next month’s under-17 women’s World Cup. He intends to present a short-term plan on September 7 followed by the first executive committee meeting in Kolkata on September 17 or 18. ”After 100 days, we will present a realistic roadmap for Indian football,” he said.

“I don’t promise the moon. I have been to many meetings where we have been told that we’ll play FIFA World Cup in eight years. I won’t make any such claims. What I can promise is to take Indian football forward.”

One way to do that is to target schools. The new president has already had a discussion with Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and plans to speak to the HRD Minister next.

“We want to reach at least one lakh students and bring them to amateur football. We want to figure out ways to incorporate trained coaches in schools and make use of PT periods.”

Chaubey said he had spoken to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “He said he wants to meet me in Doha or Zurich this year, but I said I can meet him only after I have spoken to all stakeholders in India and figured out what we can offer to world football. That will be my first task, to speak to all member associations and figure out the challenges at hand,” said the new president.