The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside the election of Praful Patel as the All India Football Federation president and made former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi as administrator of the national body.

Here’s the lowdown on what it all means for the national football body and the sport in the country.

What happened

  • The court said the AIFF’s 2016 election process didn’t follow the National Sports Code. It has directed fresh elections to be held in five months. 
  • Patel was unanimously re-elected as president at the Annual General Body Meeting held in December last year. This is his third term in the post.
  • The elections then were completed in the presence of the appointed returning officer Justice Bipin Chandra Kandpal (Retd.), Dilip Kumar Singh from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Kuldeep Vats on behalf of the Indian Olympic Association. 

What’s the issue

  • Tuesday’s decision follows a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by sports activist Rahul Mehra. 
  • The Sports Code makes it clear that each candidate must be nominated by one member association and seconded by another member. But in the AIFF electoral process, each candidate has to be nominated by five member associations. 
  • “This is an undemocratic clause where you are ousting a person even before he has filed his nomination,” Mehra had claimed while filing the petition.
  • Prior to the elections, the court had stayed the process for a while. The court later modified the order and vacated the stay order granted against the election process after the AIFF filed an affidavit assuring that the election process would be conducted in accordance with the Sports Code.

What it means for India

  • AIFF could get into trouble with Fifa. The world body suspended the Pakistan Football Federation earlier this month because the body’s “offices and its accounts were in control of a court-appointed administrator.”
  • With an administrator being appointed by the court, a similar action cannot be ruled out in the case of the AIFF. 
  • AIFF can take up the matter in the higher court. But in the meantime, Patel will have to step aside just days after India successfully hosted the U-17 Fifa World Cup with him at the helm of affairs.
  • “AIFF is not aware of the reasons of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to pass this order,” the national football body said in a statement. “Once AIFF receives the copy of the Order from the Hon’ble High Court, AIFF will decide the course of action in accordance with the law.”