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FIFA threatens AIFF with ban and withdrawal of hosting rights for Women's U-17 World Cup 2022

AIFF is currently in internal turmoil and is run by a third party. Thus, FIFA has threatened AIFF with a ban, besides taking away the hosting rights for Women's U-17 World Cup 2022.

FIFA threatens AIFF with ban and withdrawal of hosting rights for Women U-17 World Cup 2022-ayh
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New Delhi, First Published Aug 6, 2022, 1:55 PM IST

The world football governing body, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), has threatened to suspend the All-India Football Federation (AIFF). It has also threatened to strip off its hosting rights for the Women's U-17 World Cup in October after a third party "influence". The development comes just days after the Supreme Court's command to hold elections for the national federation. The Supreme Court on Wednesday demanded the All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive committee to expeditiously hold elections per the schedule proposed by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), currently running the AIFF affairs.

It noted that India would be hosting the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup from October 11. The elections were due to be held on August 28, and the poll process was to start on August 13, as the top court approved the timeline the CoA prepared. "...we kindly ask the AIFF to provide us without further delay with an official transcript of the Supreme Court's decision of August 3, 2022, by 17:00 hours Indian Standard Time on August 9, 2022," FIFA told AIFF General Secretary Sunando Dhar in an official letter.

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"Upon receipt of the said documentation and following its in-depth analysis, should there exist serious deviations to the aforesaid roadmap, we would submit the matter to our relevant decision-making body for further considerations and possible decisions based on FIFA Statutes, including the suspension of the AIFF and the withdrawal of the hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India," the letter further read.

FIFA warned that it is against any third-party intervention in the running of its member units. "In this context, we would like to recall the AIFF's statutory obligations applicable to all of FIFA and the AFC member associations, including the obligation to manage its affairs independently and ensure that its own affairs are not influenced by any third parties (cf. art. 14.1.(i) and art. 19.1 of FIFA Statutes in conjunction with art. 15.4 of the AFC statutes)," continued the letter.

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In the letter sent on Friday, marked by FIFA and AFC General Secretary Fatma Samour and Datuk Windsor John, respectively, the world body articulated that the Supreme Court's order "allegedly" resulted in divergences from the roadmap agreed upon earlier.

"Kindly refer to our joint FIFA-AFC letter of July 1 2022, which addressed the roadmap agreed upon by AIFF and further participants to the meetings organised during a joint mission held on 21-23 June 2022. FIFA and the AFC further reiterated our positions in our joint FIFA-AFC letter sent on July 25, 2022," the letter added.

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"As per the said roadmap, the AIFF was to call for a special general assembly on the first week of August 2022 to approve the new statutes worked upon with FIFA, the AFC and the Indian football community. Unfortunately, we have been informed that the Supreme Court's hearing held yesterday on the situation of the AIFF allegedly resulted in deviations to the aforementioned roadmap. If this is considered to be true, it would irrefutably jeopardise the mutual understanding which was displayed so far on the steps forward," concluded the letter.

India will be hosting the FIFA women's U-17 World Cup from October 11-30, and the Union Cabinet last month assented to the Signing of Guarantees for hosting the showpiece that will be held in Bhubaneswar, Goa and Mumbai.

(With inputs from PTI)

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