CHENNAI: Finally, there seems to be some kind of a date for the election process to end. It has emerged that FIFA-Asian Football Confederation (AFC) delegate wants the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its stakeholders to end the election process by September 15. It is understood that the state associations have agreed to commit to that deadline after meetings on Thursday. Though the date is not officially announced, members who attended the meeting said that the delegation has given September 15 as the deadline for elections. All the state units, considered the general body, met and decided to take one step at a time. First thing is to get the constitution in order and adjust or modify a few sticky points on the line of FIFA and AFC statutes.
The draft constitution prepared by the court-appointed three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) would be presented to the court on July 15 before the matter is listed for hearing on July 21. The members of the state units felt the court process would be over by July 31. According to members who attended the meeting, if the matter concludes by July 31, then within five days the state units are going to call for a Special General Meeting to finalise the dates for the elections.
What seems tricky is the first deadline of July 31. If the constitution is not passed by this date, then the entire process would get delayed. First, they need to call for an SGM and then decide on the other dates. The electoral college would be drafted as per the new constitution. According to its constitution, notice should be issued 21 days before the AGM and elections can be held later. As of now, it seems the September 15 deadline would be touch and go.
It is understood that the state units also ratified the appointment of the general secretary in the absence of the court-suspended executive council. Apparently, it was done in accordance with FIFA and AFC statutes.
According to an AIFF (CoA) statement, a joint FIFA/AFC mission has concluded a three-day visit to India where it held constructive discussions with local stakeholders regarding the situation in the AIFF.
The statement also said that "the meetings concluded that the next steps should be the ratification of the AIFF statutes in line with the FIFA-AFC principles of good governance and the holding of an Electoral Congress to choose the next AIFF leadership." This, according to AIFF, would be based on a timeline agreed by AIFF stakeholders.
The mission was led by the AFC General Secretary, Datuk Seri Windsor John, and included AFC Deputy General Secretary, Vahid Kardany, FIFA Chief Member Associations Officer, Kenny Jean-Marie, and FIFA Director of Strategic Projects and Member Association Governance, Nodar Akhalkatsi. The delegate also met the CoA, Praful Patel, the FIFA council member, sports minister Anurag Thakur, the sports development committee and other stakeholders.