Amidst cross-arguments between lawyer for constituent 36 football associations and advocate Rahul Mehra, who had triggered off the reforms with a PIL in the Delhi HC, joint secretary in Union sports ministry Siddhartha Singh Longjam made a spirited presentation about early finalisation of the AIFF constitution to bring it in sync with FIFA’s requirements for hosting the international event.
“In 2017, India hosted the FIFA U-17 men’s World Cup and it gave rich experience to our junior players, some of whom graduated to the senior team and helped India qualify for the Asia Cup. Though the Indian women’s team is ranked 56, it will get a chance to p lay with top teams of the world in October to enrich the players with international experience. A FIFA team has met the government officials and said that it would like AIFF to have a democratically elected body. We are apprehensive that in the absence of a constitution, there would not be any elections which could jeopardise hosting the event,” Longjam said.
The AIFF is headless and the women’s U-17 World Cup less than three months away. The apex court is rightly hearing the matter on a priority basis. Hopefully, the elections will be held soon and the World Cup will be organised smoothly.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and A S Bopanna said the government’s concern appeared genuine and there is a need to put an elected body at the helm of affairs of FIFA latest by September. It asked senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the Committee of Administrators, to collate the objections to the draft constitution to be submitted by Monday by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, on behalf of the constituent associations, Mehra and Neeta Ambani headed Football Sports Development Corporation (FSDL), which conducts the Indian Super League.
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