Shillong, Aug 27: Eugeneson Lyngdoh will not feature in the All India Football Federation election that is to take place on 2nd September.
This is the second time that the nomination process has been undertaken, after it was decided to scrap the first attempt in order to overturn FIFA’s ban of the AIFF. That ban was overturned yesterday.
Lyngdoh had filed his nomination to be an AIFF Executive Committee member in the first attempted election process but was disqualified on a technicality.
The Supreme Court’s decision on 22nd August meant that the whole process of nominations had to be carried out again, which gave Lyngdoh a chance to put in a valid nomination a second time.
However, the former India international, Mawphlang MLA and Shillong Sports Association President did not. Instead, he proposed the name of K Neibou Sekhose of Nagaland for a place on the Executive Committee; the nominations will be scrutinised by the Returning Officer tomorrow.
Despite not standing, Lyngdoh, who is representing the Meghalaya Football Association, will still be involved in the election process as a voter on 2nd September.
Two nominations each were received for the positions of AIFF President, Vice-President and Treasurer.
The Presidential nominees are another former India international Bhaichung Bhutia and former Mohun Bagan and East Bengal goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey.
The nominees for Vice-President (a post that was only reinstated by the 22nd August decision of the Supreme Court) are NA Haris of the Karnataka State Football Association and Manvendra Singh of Rajasthan. Those for Treasurer are Kipa Ajay of Arunachal Pradesh and Gopalakrishnan Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh. However, it was reported in the media that the latter withdrew from the race yesterday, one day after submitting his nomination.
There were 14 names put forward for Executive Committee member – GP Palguna of of Telangana; Avijit Paul of Odisha; Anilkumar P of Kerala; Valanka Natasha Alemao of Goa; Maloji Raje Chhatrapati of Maharashtra; Menla Ethenpa of Sikkim; Mohan Lal of Chhattisgarh; Arif Ali of Uttarakhand; K Neibou Sekhose of Nagaland; Lalnghinglova Hmar of Mizoram; Deepak Sharma of Himachal Pradesh; Vijay Bali of Punjab; Syed Imtiaz Husain of Bihar; and Syed Hasnain Ali Naqvi of Madhya Pradesh.
FIFA’s lifting of the ban on the AIFF has been welcome news for the country in that it puts the U-17 Women’s World Cup, meant to be hosted by India in October, back on track. The world governing body was satisfied that the Supreme Court dissolved the Committee of Administrators, which it had appointed to run the AIFF ahead of the elections. The apex court also decided that eminent players will not vote in the election, though six of them will be co-opted into the Executive Committee.
(File photo)
