Majority of AIFF EC members to choose between national body posts and state unit office

New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) A majority of the AIFF's Executive Committee members will have to resign from their positions or lose their top posts in the state units if the national federation adopts its draft Constitution during the Special General Meeting (SGM) on Sunday.

The Supreme Court on September 19 approved the draft constitution of the AIFF prepared by former apex court judge L Nageswara Rao with certain modifications, and directed the football body to adopt it within four weeks in a general body meeting.

After the SC verdict, the All India Football Federation has called a SGM here on Sunday to adopt the draft Constitution in line with the top court's ruling.

But a particular clause of the draft constitution has caused headache to the AIFF top brass as majority of the members of the Executive Committee also hold top posts in the state units.

Clause (c) of Article 25.3 of the draft constitution sates that: "In the event a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in a Member Association, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association." Once this clause comes into effect after the draft constitution is adopted, the AIFF's EC members cannot continue as office bearers of their respective state units.

They can, however, continue to their respective posts in the state units if they resign from the membership of the AIFF's executive committee before the SGM.

This particular clause does not, however, affect AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey as he is not an office bearer of any state unit.

The AIFF executive committee currently has 16 elected officials and six co-opted eminent former players who have voting rights.

Out of the 16 officials, at least 12 are also holding posts in the state units and thus will be hit by Article 25.3 (c) of the AIFF draft constitution.

It is, however, not clear as yet what the AIFF executive committee members will do in the next few days as no one is ready to comment on the matter.

Some of them are presidents or secretaries and some Executive Committee members of the state units. Most of them are likely to prefer to be associated with their states, more so as the AIFF election is less than one year away.

Under the draft constitution, the executive committee members of both the AIFF and the state units will be considered as "office bearers". The particular clause was included in the draft constitution formulated by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) headed by former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Quraishi but was not there in the document prepared by Justice Rao.

But on the plea of some stakeholders during the hearings, the SC re-instated the clause.

"On prima facie analysis, clauses (b) and (c) of the erstwhile provision seem very important. Firstly, they are against holding two offices at the same time. Second, they will ensure that an official at the national federation is not overworked with responsibilities at a member association and vice versa," the SC had held.

"In this view of the matter, we reinstate the above extract clauses (b) and (c) as clauses (c) and (d) in the proposed Article 25 of the Constitution." Clause (d) states: "Similarly, in the event that a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in a Member Association and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association." Meanwhile, Chaubey has called a meeting of the AIFF executive committee in New Delhi on Tuesday, and there is speculation that the members will discuss how to deal with the matter as the national federation cannot go against the SC ruling.

The agenda of the meeting, however, lists three items: 1. presentation by KPMG of the draft RFQ/RFP for the top tier league matter; 2. discussion on tender matter; and 3. approval of annual accounts.

World football governing body FIFA has set an October 30 deadline for the AIFF to adopt the new Constitution.

The draft constitution, prepared by Justice Rao on the SC's directions, proposed some radical changes, including a person holding the office for a maximum period of 12 years during their lifetime subject to serving a maximum of two successive terms of four years each.

Under the draft constitution, the executive committee of the AIFF will have 14 members, who would be under the age and tenure restrictions.

There will be one president, two vice presidents (a man and a woman), one treasurer and 10 other members, it added.

Of the 10 other members, five would be eminent players, including two women.

The draft constitution also has provisions for the removal of the office bearers, including the president, through a no-confidence motion which the existing constitution of the AIFF does not have.

Under the draft constitution, India's top-tier football league can no longer be owned or operated by private players and the AIFF will have to take sole ownership of the product.

The AIFF will haver to be the sole entity responsible for owning and operating the top division league.

Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has been running the country's top-tier domestic football event -- the Indian Super League (ISL) -- since its inception in 2014.

Also, as per a clause in the approved constitution, the top league will now implement a promotion and relegation system, which will be in consonance with global football governance. PTI PDS PDS AT AT