The Committee of administrators which was appointed by the Apex Court has asked to initiate contempt proceedings against the former President of All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel and representatives of seven state associations for indirectly stalling the election in AIFF as ordered by court.
The plea filed by Committee said after the apex court on August 3 recorded the consensus among the various parties for first conducting the elections to the AIFF in a time bound fashion and then to finalise the constitution, the state associations have attempted to resile from the same,
The plea added that the “The evidence enclosed with this contempt petition would show that Praful Patel, who had been removed as President of the AIFF, has consistently abused his position as a Council Member of FIFA to orchestrate a campaign among the State Associations to undermine the various steps taken by this court for the betterment of football, including having footballers involved in governance and administration.
It also states that the added that on August 6 the very deponents before this court on behalf of the state associations have participated in meetings conducted by Patel where he impliedly admits that letters threatening suspension from the FIFA-AFC have been obtained to “help” them, and that the government is convinced to seek a review of the order fearing the worst.
The plea says that the government has been misled by the State Associations because many of the FIFA-AFC are ignorant of the duplicitous role being played by Patel.
The plea says that though steps have been taken towards the elections, the appointed Committee wants measures be taken the BCCI case) to prevent those who endanger Indian football from interfering with the court’s monitoring of the process.
The primary cause cited for present contempt petition, is the continuing role of Patel, former President of AIFF, who conducted a meeting of the 35 intervening member associations on August 6, 2022 with the purpose of interfering in the proceedings of the court.
“The Committee has come to know that the very State Associations, who were before this Hon’ble Court and had given their consent, have approached a Union Ministry with a copy of the FIFA-AFC letter of 05.08.2022 (but not the CoA Reply of 06.08.2022) and created a fear of AIFF being suspended because of non-compliances.
The Supreme Court has directed that the interim executive committee for All India Football Federation (AIFF) would be elected not only by 36 state football federations, but also by 36 eminent former football players 24 male and 12 female players who played international matches for the country.