The leagues of at least five Indian state football associations have been cancelled by the All India Football Federation on Wednesday.

The state associations of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Goa have been asked to re-conduct their leagues or forsake a spot in the third season of the Indian Women’s League.

The decision was taken at the AIFF’s annual general meeting after the matter was discussed at its League Committee meeting.

While Haryana and Rajasthan had a two-team and a three-team league respectively, Uttar Pradesh conducted a 18-team knockout tournament, all of which fell foul of the AIFF’s guidelines of having a six-team league at the minimum.

Maharashtra and Goa have faced problems due to the non-registration of players in the Centralised Registration System (CRS). In Maharashtra, the Western India Football Federation (Wifa) has been accused of doing a poor job of conducting the women’s league.

A screenshot of the now-deleted FB post declaring Kenkre as winners.

“Yes, we cancelled the league in Maharashtra because four of the six teams had a problem with the CRS,” confirmed Subrata Datta, chairman of the AIFF’s League Committee. “We could not possibly continue the league with only two teams. That is why we called for fresh leagues.”

The Women’s Championship in Mumbai was originally to be conducted among 20 teams but was reduced to 10 after a string of pull-outs. Interestingly, after the League Committee called for the Women’s Championship to be cancelled on December 7, Wifa held two matches the following day. While Kenkre defeated FC Mumbaikars 3-2 in the morning kick-off , Bodyline SC was defeated 1-3 by Pifa FC in the evening match.

Scroll.in tried contacting Souter Vaz, secretary of Wifa and member of the League Committee, but he did not respond to calls.

On December 10, three days after AIFF cancelled the league, Wifa put up a now-deleted Facebook post declaring Kenkre as the champions of the Women’s Championship. Wifa also stated that Kenkre FC would be Maharashtra’s representatives in the IWL.

Matches were held after the league was cancelled

“The state association asked me to play,” said one of the team owners, who requested anonymity since s/he did not want to fall foul with Wifa. “I can’t refuse when they do so or the team will be penalised.”

This team owner also said they had no inkling that the league had been cancelled as Wifa had failed to communicate AIFF’s decision to the teams.

Mangesh Desai, technical officer of Wifa and AIFF Developmental Officer, Maharashtra, defended the organisation of the last two fixtures of the Women’s Championship, stating that they had received no official communication from the League Committee till December 18. “The meeting was held on the 7th but we did not hear back from them till the 18th. Hence. we cancelled the league later.”

Email asking teams to play the final round again

However, an e-mail sent by Desai to the teams on December 14 clearly states that Wifa knew about the cancellation by then and had called for fresh registrations. He also mentions in the email that the league will be re-organised.

According to Desai, the cancellation was the fault of the teams. “If the teams don’t have registered players, why are they playing them? If they haven’t received a No Objection Certificate for registration, they should check before playing them first,” he said.

Desai also explained that in case of a transfer from another team, an NOC had to be obtained from the previous team. In case of the player moving from the state or the national team, an additional NOC had to be obtained from the state association and the AIFF respectively. In some cases, the teams had not approached the Wifa for an NOC.

Another team owner claimed that calls for registration were sent to Wifa, who had to provide the approvals for the CRS. “We sent our requests via mail, but they kept saying the mailing system was ‘broken’. Now, it’s a colossal waste of money to re-play the league over again,” the team owner said.

The league’s conduct was questioned entirely starting from the complete absence of Wifa officials, to a post-Diwali fixture being cancelled because only the teams turned up and the referee didn’t.

Registration of players remains a big concern as state associations fail to keep a check on it. Many teams who qualify for the IWL play with completely different teams in the final round, and hence don’t register players in the early phases to avoid playing with the same team throughout.

The diligence of the state associations towards the CRS is questionable and so is their understanding of the AIFF’s rules and regulations of conducting a league. The disinterest showed by Wifa is also considerable.

The women’s game, which is perilously thin when it comes to resources, will take a hit due to the cancellations. Costs of fielding teams again could exceed Rs 5 lakh.

As one of the stakeholders rightly asked, “If this was a men’s league, would the same treatment be meted out?”