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AIFF elections stayed by Delhi High Court for Sports Code violations!

Elections of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Executive Committee on Wednesday, December 21 has stayed by the Delhi High Court for what they termed non-adherence to the National Sports Code while hearing a general public interest litigation (PIL) on sports in India earlier today, December 15.

According to the petitioner Rahul Mehra, he brought to the notice of the Delhi High Court under the two-member bench comprising Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Najmi Waziri on how the AIFF had violated several provisions of the above mentioned National Sports Code during their own electoral process and had turned the election a non-starter with key individuals of the AIFF ExCo pre-deciding on who would stand for which posts.

The Delhi High Court took notice of the above and stayed the AIFF ExCo elections till the next hearing on January 20, 2017.

The issue had gotten important earlier this month because the Goa Football Association informed the elections Returning Officer Justice B.C. Kandpal (Retired) about the irregularities but got no reply to their written intimidation that the elections were done and dusted as per the key members of the AIFF.

But there is another angle to the whole issue, which I consider is not being given enough thought and importance, which is how world football governing body FIFA sees a local court interfering with the elections of a national body. In other countries court interference has led to the suspension by FIFA of the national football association.

And we have to remember that India are set to host the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup and if there is any risk of suspension, then it could lead to FIFA cutting off funding for the tournament preparations, which would be a disaster for Indian football.

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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