A suspension from international football, the appointment of a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and uncertainty over hosting the hockey World Cup. Even as the dust settles over a successful Commonwealth Games campaign, Indian sport has been thrown into turmoil,
The Indian Express reported.
Late Monday night, football’s world governing body FIFA announced that it had suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) “with immediate effect due to flagrant violations of the FIFA Statutes”. FIFA cited “undue interference by third party”, referring to a Supreme Court-appointed CoA to run the daily affairs of the AIFF, as the reason for suspending India.
The IOA, too, is staring at a similar fate after the
Delhi High Court on Tuesday named another CoA to run the federation. Last month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had threatened to suspend the IOA for outside interference in its functioning as well as not conducting its elections in a timely manner.
The IOA is the fifth sports federation, after football, hockey, judo and table tennis, to be placed under a CoA. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Anil Dave, and ex-chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi are administrators in three of the five CoAs: football, hockey and IOA.
The latest setbacks for AIFF and IOA came at a time when a high-level delegation of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) is in New Delhi for crisis talks with the Government, Hockey India and a third court-appointed CoA.
The FIH has said if their meetings, likely to take place on Wednesday, are not satisfactory, they will consider stripping India of hosting rights for the World Cup, scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela in January 2023, according to The Indian Express.
All these Indian sporting bodies find themselves in the dock due to governance-related issues.
