Suspension of AIFF by FIFA brings to fore the mess our sports bodies are in
Football, the world's most popular sport never really took off in India, thanks to the overcast shadow of cricket and the mismanagement of the sport at the highest level. Though there is a lot of enthusiasm about the sport, especially in pockets like West Bengal and Goa, the amenities and facilities that are required to compete at the world level are conspicuous by their absence. A couple of days back Indian football suffered yet another blow. FIFA, world football's governing body, banned the All India Football Federation (AIFF) the apex body in the country to manage the sport. The ban spells doom for Indian football as the Indian players would not be able to compete in international tournaments. Besides no international football event would take place in the country. That means India would not be able to host this autumn's U-17 Women's World Cup this autumn. Now the big question why FIFA did took such an extreme step. And it turns out that it was not a sudden move but AIFF was asking for it. The two reasons for banning the Indian federation are third-party intervention and not following the protocols as per FIFA guidelines.
In May this year, the Supreme Court removed Praful Patel as the president of the federation. His term had expired two years back. On June 22 a FIFA delegation visited India and said that a new constitution must be drafted and elections should be conducted by September 15 this year. FIFA feels that the AIFF is now being run by Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee of administrations (COA) to take necessary decisions and that voting rights of the states have been slashed by the supreme court. This unfortunate situation could have been avoided with timely action and taking the state units into confidence which AIFF did not do unfortunately of the goof ups of AIFF the football players of the country would be suffering especially women football players preparing for the U-17 women's world cup. It is a sad commentary on the way sports are run in our country. Be it cricket, archery, or football all are run by political leaders who are most reluctant to leave their position even after their term expires. The players come last in the sports pyramid. We shower accolades and prizes when they win but never care to talk about the plight of the players when they train.