India loses U17 World Cup rights on Fifa ban; SC to hear govt's plea today

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Wednesday a plea by the Union government over the issue of Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) suspending the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect.

The FIFA suspension has stripped the country of the right to host the Under-17 Women's World Cup scheduled in October.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the AIFF matter before a Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna. “One matter is coming up tomorrow (August 17) with reference to AIFF. There was some development yesterday (Monday). It may not be deleted,” he said.

Mehta said Fifa had in its statement cited “undue influence from third parties” as the reason for AIFF’s suspension.

“The suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a panel of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the daily affairs,” the release by Fifa reads.

The apex court had appointed a committee of administrators (CoA) to govern AIFF after an order on May 18 this year. It observed that AIFF’s executive committee continuing beyond its four-year term was “not proper governance”.

The court had also relieved AIFF’s former president Praful Patel and his executive committee from their responsibilities. The elections to AIFF did not take place as the matter regarding its constitution was pending before the court.

On August 10, the CoA had filed a contempt plea in the Supreme Court against Patel and other office-bearers of state football associations accusing them of trying to defeat the purpose of the apex court’s supervision through the CoA.

On August 11, the court had allowed a request by the sports ministry for an opportunity to have a meeting with its CoA and Fifa.

The court said it wanted India to host the World Cup. “You want to sort it out among yourselves. We have no difficulty because we want the World Cup to be held here,” Justice Chandrachud had told AIFF, states associations, the ministry, and other stakeholders.

Regarding AIFF elections, the court had agreed with the CoA’s proposal that 36 eminent football players should be part of the electoral college with right to vote in the elections.