Shillong, Oct 13: The All India Football Federation adopted a constitution in a Special General Body Meeting without two clauses, a decision on which is pending in the Supreme Court.

The court had approved the AIFF’s draft constitution, which had been prepared by former judge L Nageswara Rao with modifications, and instructed the federation to adopt it within four weeks.

But two clauses of the constitution concerned the AIFF’s senior members.

According to Article 23.3 of the draft constitution, “Any such amendment shall not be given effect to without the leave of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.” This provision could be interpreted as allowed third-party intervention in the running of the association, which is a breach of FIFA rules and which could lead to a ban.

The other is Clause (c) of Article 25.3 of the draft constitution, which states: “In the event a person is elected as an office bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF and holds a position of an office bearer in a member association, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the member association.”

Approval of this clause would mean the majority of AIFF’s EC would be forced to choose between sitting in their respective state body or the national one; in the current 16-member ExCo, a dozen members also hold positions in state associations.

The adoption of the constitution comes at a time when FIFA and the AFC had threatened to ban India if it was not approved and accepted by 31st October.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice AS Chandurkar said, on 10th October, that it will have a word with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, who was part of the bench that approved the constitution.

“We have already said that our judgement is only in the interregnum till the Act comes into play. These small things could have been easily taken care of. Anyway, we will seek the views of Justice Rao and issue a clarification,” the bench added. The matter is expected to be taken up in the court next week.

Facebook Comments