Delhi High Court dismisses AIFF President Praful Patel election in Dec 2016, S.Y. Quraishi to be AIFF administrator!

Only three days after successfully hosting the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the All India Football Federation came in for a rude shock as the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, October 31 set aside the election of its president Praful Patel, re-elected in December 2016 for a four-year term, his third successive tenure with the national football body.

The reason given by the Delhi High Court is for the AIFF not following the National Sports Code of India, while it also directed fresh elections be conducted within a period of five months.

A bench of justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Najmi Waziri also appointed former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi as an administrator to look into the functioning of the AIFF.

The court’s order came on a plea by advocate Rahul Mehra contending that the elections of the federation were held contrary to the National Sports Code.