The international football federation (FIFA) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have warned that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is staring at an imminent ban for "deviating" from the "roadmap" for getting the new constitution in place, which will result in the country losing the hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.
In a strongly-worded letter, a copy of which is with IANS, the global and continental football-governing bodies said, "We refer you to our joint FIFA-AFC letter of 1 July 2022 which addressed the roadmap agreed upon by AIFF and further participants to the meetings organised during a joint mission held on 21-23 June 2022. FIFA and the AFC further reiterated our positions in our joint FIFA-AFC letter sent on 25 July 2022."
The letter further said that as per the said roadmap, the AIFF was to call for a special general assembly in the first week of August 2022 to approve the new statute worked upon with FIFA, the AFC and the Indian football community.
"As per the said roadmap, the AIFF was to call for a special general assembly on the first week of August 2022 to approve the new statutes worked upon with FIFA, the AFC and the Indian football community. Unfortunately, we have been informed that the Supreme Court's hearing held yesterday on the situation of the AIFF allegedly resulted in deviations to the aforementioned roadmap. If this is considered to be true, it would irrefutably jeopardise the mutual understanding which was displayed so far on the steps forward, " the letter, dated August 5, said.
The mail concluded with a warning of an imminent ban if the AIFF does not adhere to its "statutory obligations" towards FIFA and AFC and gets influenced by "third parties".
"In this context, we would like to recall the AIFF's statutory obligations applicable to all of FIFA and the AFC member associations, including the obligation to manage its affairs independently and ensure that its own affairs are not influenced by any third parties (cf. art. 14.1.(i) and art. 19.1 of FIFA Statutes in conjunction with art. 15.4 of the AFC Statutes)."
The letter also asked AIFF to provide FIFA-AFC with the "official transcript of the Supreme Court's decision of August" without further delay. The letter said that should the FIFA-AFC find a deviation in the path to the normalisation of AIFF, it would withdraw the hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India.
"Bearing in mind the above, we kindly ask the AIFF to provide us without further delay with an official transcript of the Supreme Court's decision of 3 August 2022 by 17:00 hours Indian Standard Time on 9 August 2022. Upon receipt of the said documentation and following its in-depth analysis, should there exist serious deviations to the aforesaid roadmap, we would submit the matter to our relevant decision-making body for further considerations and possible decisions based on FIFA Statutes, including the suspension of the AIFF and the withdrawal of the hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India, " the letter concluded.