A red card at last

It is an opportunity to get the Indian football administration cleaned up

While Indians were celebrating the 75th anniversary of the nation’s independence, a nasty shock was in the works for football enthusiasts in particular. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) guillotined a consultative process that had gone on far too long and suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with retrospective effect, from August 14.

The AIFF, however, got the letter in the early hours of August 16. Indians were aghast and many were incensed at what was perceived as an arbitrary and authoritarian action. Perhaps some would say it partook of an entrenched Eurocentric and imperialistic attitude as well. Certainly, given FIFA’s track record, especially in the arena of financial probity, nobody would go out on a limb to defend it. But.

The shenanigans in Indian football administration have been going on for far too long. Make that the administration of sports in general, a matter to which we shall return. For well over three decades, the AIFF has seen only two people at its helm: The late Priya Ranjan Das Munshi (1988-2008) and Praful Patel (2009-2022). And guess what, neither of them had anything to do with football. They were both politicians who muscled into football administration.

When I say neither of the worthies had anything to do with football, I don’t mean that neither played football at any level. I mean neither had any meaningful association with the game at any level before butting into the institutional arena. Finally, something came unstuck. The public does not know what went wrong, but thankfully Mr Patel was removed in May.

Unfortunately, the solution was less than ideal. The template set during the crisis that had befallen cricket administration in 2017, involving the intervention of the Supreme Court and the appointment of a committee of administrators, was followed. In the case of cricket, it took almost three years before all the warring factions and recalcitrant individuals could be tamed, a constitution framed and a new president elected to head a fresh committee to run the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). The International Cricket Council (ICC) gave India the leeway and the time needed for this because the BCCI is the richest member of the ICC and possibly the most consequential cricketing nation in the world for a number of reasons.

To say that the AIFF’s stature is not comparable would be charmingly modest. And India, at the time of the AIFF’s suspension, was ranked 104 out of 211 in the FIFA list. The latitude available to BCCI was obviously never going to be offered to AIFF. Though Mr Patel has been removed, AIFF and the administrators have been flailing about like headless chickens for the past three-odd months. Constitutions have been made and junked; committees have been formed and challenged.

Crucially, no one seems to have the faintest whiff about what’s been going on. That’s obvious from the fact that no one in AIFF, the committee or the corridors generally speaking had an inkling about how to react to the suspension, though it had been on the cards for months. The reason cited for the suspension was “third-party interference”, which, decoded, means the failure to put in place a constitution and an elected administrative structure which is in consonance with the FIFA’s statutory regime.

One way of seeing FIFA’s decision to suspend AIFF’s membership, without arriving at any sanctimonious judgements about how the former runs world football, is that it is an opportunity to get Indian football administration cleaned up. Just maybe.

While the AIFF has actually got the chop, Hockey India, which is also being run by a committee of administrators, is on thin ice. Given that India is slated to host the 2023 World Cup, and, ranked at number five, is in the running for a medal finish at home, there is much more at stake to avert this kind of a disaster, which is not to say that the AIFF suspension should be taken lightly.

Representatives of the Federation Internationale de Hockey (FIH) were in India to discuss the adoption of a new constitution, under which elections must be held to put in place a new administration. The World Cup is to be held in January, which means the margins are fine.

Practically, every sport in India is dogged by administrative problems. Even the Indian Olympic Association has been threatened with sanctions this year. Miraculously, the chess federation revivified itself well in time for Tamil Nadu to host this year’s edition of the Olympiad, with Indian players turning in stellar performances.

The problems faced by almost all sports are most often caused by the involvement of politicians who have no business being involved in the first place and who are in the game only to make a fast buck. It’s time to show them all the door.