Centre mentions AIFF suspension before SC, hearing on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday mentioned the suspension of All India Football Federation (AIFF) by FIFA before the Supreme Court and sought a hearing on the matter.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

Mehta submitted that some development has taken place in the matter related to AIFF and requested the court to hear the matter on Wednesday.

The bench told Mehta that the case is listed as first item on Wednesday. Mehta did not mention the suspension of AIFF specifically before the court, but submitted that he will circulate the FIFA press release, which is already in public domain, so that the bench gets an idea about the development.

FIFA, the apex football body, has suspended AIFF with "immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties," jeopardising the country's staging of the U-17 Women's World Cup in October. The AIFF will not be able to play any international games until the ban is removed.

"The Bureau of the FIFA Council has unanimously decided to suspend the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes," stated an official media release, issued by FIFA. The suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF's daily affairs, it said.

On August 3, the apex court had passed directions for conducting elections for the AIFF executive committee ahead of the hosting of the U-17 women's world cup by India. After this order, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) moved a contempt petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against former AIFF president Praful Patel and representatives of 7 state associations accusing them of indirectly stalling the court ordered elections to the AIFF.