FIFA bans India: Supreme Court sets Aug 17 as hearing date post centre’s appeal

In an embarrassing turn of events for Indian football, the world football governing body, FIFA, announced on August 15 that it was banning the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on grounds of a third party influencing its decisions. This has jeopardized India’s chances of hosting the women’s U-17 World Cup which was scheduled to take place in October 2022.

On Tuesday, the central government requested the Supreme Court to hear the case on an “urgent” basis. In response to the same, the apex court set a hearing date of August 17 for the case and said that it would be taken up as the first matter on the day.

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The appeal was made to a bench comprising of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna by India’s Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta.

Praful Patel, the former general secretary of the AIFF, was removed from his position by the Supreme Court in May 2022 after he did not conduct the scheduled elections for the body in December 2020. Notably, the SC-appointed Committee of Administrators had earlier filed a petition to the court to take contempt of court action against Patel.

The CoA, which consists of former SC judge AR Dave, ex-India captain Bhaskar Ganguly, and former Chief Commissioner of India, SY Quraishi, said that the central government had been “misled by the state associations, as have FIFA-AFC who are ignorant of the duplicitous role being played by Mr. Patel”.

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This is the first the AIFF has been the subject of a FIFA suspension in its 85-year-old history. The suspension, if it is not lifted soon, means that not only will India lose out on its chances of hosting the women’s U-17 World Cup, but also that Indian clubs will not be able to compete in continental tournaments like the AFC Women Club Championship, AFC Cup, and the AFC Champions League.

While former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia sees this as an opportunity to right the wrongs that have been going on in Indian football, current captain Sunil Chhetri has asked his teammates to concentrate on matters of the field instead.