All India Football Federation issue: CoA submits draft constitution to Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The draft constitution of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), which has been framed by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), has been submitted to the Supreme Court for its approval on Friday.

AIFF acting general secretary, Sunando Dhar said, "After a lengthy set of discussions with various stakeholders, the draft Constitution of the AIFF has finally been submitted to the honourable court. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the process, on this swift move forward, and hope that with the new constitution in place, we can move ahead with developing Indian football."

The CoA, which had been appointed by the apex court on May 18, 2022, is comprised of Justice (retired) Anil R Dave, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. SY Quraishi and former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly.

The apex court directed the CoA to assist the court in facilitating the adoption of the constitution and prepare electoral rolls for the purpose of conducting elections of the AIFF at the earliest.

Since then, in the course of formulating the draft constitution, the CoA has spoken to all the AIFF's stakeholders, including state associations, FIFA, Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Indian Super League (ISL) and I-League clubs and considered suggestions forwarded by them.

"After a lot of deliberation, we have finally narrowed down on a draft constitution that would put the AIFF in line with the National Sports Code, as well as help it function efficiently as a Member Association of the FIFA and the AFC," said Quraishi.

"We are confident that with these set of changes, the Federation will now be in a good position to guide Indian football further ahead."

Justice Dave said, "We have taken into consideration all the stakeholders involved in Indian football and their respective valued point of views over the newly-framed constitution. We also received some suggestions from football lovers across the country and studied them minutely and seriously. I wish all parties involved the very best as we all try to take the beautiful game forward in India."

Former India goalkeeper and captain Bhaskar Ganguly commended everyone on formulating the draft constitution on such short notice. "The amount of work that has gone into the draft constitution is indeed commendable and I sincerely thank everyone involved on it's completion. We hope that with these new changes, football in our country will keep growing further than ever before." IANS

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