AIFF : Supreme Court Orders Expeditious Elections To Have Democratic Body For FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup; Includes Players In Electoral College

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, directed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to conduct the elections to the executive committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) expeditiously as per the timelines proposed by CoA and consistent with the manner prescribed in Article 26 of the draft Constitution of the AIFF. Article 26 prescribes the term, tenure, age limit and other conditions of eligibility. A Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and J.B. Pardiwala made it abundantly clear that the elected committee would be an interim body, which would continue for a period of 3 months subject to further orders of the Court. It stated that, in the interim, the constitution of AIFF can be finalized. "In view of the above, we order and direct - (1)the election to the executive committee of AIFF to be held expeditiously and concluded in terms of the time-schedule indicated (2) Elections be conducted in the manner consistent with A. 26 of the draft constitution, (3) This would be an interim arrangement without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties. (4)It is anticipated that the interim body would continue for a period of 3 months subject to further order of the court so that the constitution can be finalized in the meantime. (5) Interim body should not claim equities on the basis of the present order and present arrangement would be subject to further orders. As proposed by the CoA, the Bench thought it fit that for the purpose of the ensuing elections, apart from the representatives of the State Federations, the electoral college would also include representatives of 36 eminent football players - 24 male players and 12 female players, each having qualification of representing India in at least one match in International football and have retired from International football at least 2 years prior to the date of the notification of the election. The Women's World Cup Tournament will commence on October 11, 2022 and will be hosted by India. The FIFA requires a democratically elected body of AIFF to oversee the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and therefore the Court had decided to interfere and expedite the election process. Justice DY Chandrachud lamented that the proposed representation of women in the general body of the National Federation being half that of men, especially when the arrangement is being expedited for the upcoming Women's World Cup Tournament. Senior Advocate, Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan had apprised him that the representation of women and men would be 50-50 for future purposes, but at present due to lack of information on women players, the proposed ratio for the present election was 2:1. "We found that the statistician of AIFF does not have enough statistics regarding the number of matches played; people who have played and very little statistics for women who have played for India. We thought that one match could be the minimum cut off", the senior counsel submitted. He also informed the Bench that the CoA has considered inclusion of players in the electoral college. It was suggested that out of the 72 members of the electoral college, 36 could be representatives of the State Associations and the remaining 36 would be eminent sports persons. Similarly in the executive body, out of 12 members, it was proposed that at least 5 be eminent sports persons. The CoA had suggested 3 modalities of working out the inclusion of the sportsperson. One eminent player can be nominated by each State/UT. There can be a National Players Association which would directly make nominations or there could be zonal representations. Regarding selection of these 36 sports person, it was brought to the notice of the Bench that initially it was proposed that the said Players Association would be constituted and it would select representatives of the eminent football players but, since the process would be time consuming and given the present urgency the sports persons may be chosen on the criteria that they have represented India at least in one international match and have retired from International football at least 2 years prior to the date of the notification of the election. It was submitted that the provision for a 2 year gap from retirement has been suggested to avoid conflict of interest. Mr. Sankaranarayanan added that a consolidated list would be finalised in this regard within a period of 10 days. He pointed out that the model statutes notified by FIFA also provide due representation to players. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, submitted that the National Sports Code is an enabling code and not a restrictive document. It made submissions in line with the ones made by Mr. Sankaranarayanan. Per contra, Senior Advocate Ms. Menaka Guruswamy appearing on behalf of 35 State Authorities...

AIFF : Supreme Court Orders Expeditious Elections To Have Democratic Body For FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup; Includes Players In Electoral College

Sohini Chowdhury

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