Supreme Court approves AIFF constitution: No netas, babus, 70-year age cap

15 eminent players to be part of football body’s general house with voting rights
NEW DELHI/PANAJI: Replicating the BCCI constitution framework it had approved in 2018, the Supreme Court on Friday gave final shape to the constitution of All India Football Federation (AIFF) which debars ministers and bureaucrats from football management and imposes a 70-year-age cap on office bearers.

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A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi directed AIFF to convene a special general body meeting and adopt the draft constitution, as modified by the SC, within four weeks and hoped that it would make a new beginning for Indian football. The present governing body would continue till Sep 2026.

The AIFF now has enough time on hand to convene a general body meeting – likely on Oct 14 in Goa – and adopt the constitution, which will beat FIFA’s threat of suspension “if there’s no definitive order from the Supreme Court and ratification of the constitution by the general body before Oct 30.”

AIFF had pleaded for non-exclusion of public servants as well as MPs and MLAs — who could be sports people — from management of football. The bench in its 78-page judgment said any person who is a minister or a government servant would not be eligible to be an office bearer of AIFF.

Writing the judgement, Justice Narasimha said the 15 eminent football players in the AIFF general body would have voting rights and rejected state association’s opposition to their voting right premised on the argument that these former players would enjoy over 25% of voting rights.

“The argument of state associations regarding transgression of FIFA Statute lacks merit in as much as the Standard Statutes 2005 itself suggests the inclusion of experienced players with voting rights,” the bench said, adding that the model Sports Code does not prohibit eminent players from having more than 25% voting right.

On public servants, the bench clarified that if they obtain requisite permission, they would be eligible to be in the AIFF governing body. It rejected petitioners’ plea for exclusion of office bearers of National Sports Federation from holding posts in AIFF. SC said an AIFF officer bearer would be disqualified if convicted and sentenced for more than two years, akin to the norms applicable to MPs and MLAs.

As per the draft composition of AIFF, the general body would comprise one representative from every member association, 15 eminent players including five women elected from a national players body, three club representatives from ISL, I-League and Indian Women’s League, a male and a female representative from referees and two – male and female - from among coaches.

Who could be in the category of eminent players? This posed a challenge to the SC as India does not have a sufficient pool of eminent players who have represented India in 15 competitive matches recognized by FIFA or Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The bench reduced the benchmark for eminent players – men must have represented India in five matches and women in two.

The bench said any amendment “shall not be given effect” to without its approval, highlighting concerns that the approved constitution might be given a go-by, by the federation officials “if safety valves are not put in place.”


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