18.10.2025 19:33
Constitutional Clause on Dual Roles May Spark AIFF Turmoil
Updated on: Oct 06, 2025 09:56 pm IST
Kolkata: AIFF faces a crisis as top officials may resign if new constitution is approved, requiring them to vacate state positions to stay in national roles.
Kolkata: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) could face a crisis if the new constitution is approved at the special general body meeting in New Delhi on October 12. Faced with the requirement to give up their positions in state units, several top officials might resign from their national body roles.
Including the president, vice-president, treasurer, and eminent players, the AIFF executive committee comprises 16 members and six eminent footballers. Except for one, all members hold at least one position in a member association. As defined by the new constitution approved by the Supreme Court, a member unit of the AIFF “shall mean an association that is either a Full Member or Provisional Member of the AIFF.”
AIFF has 34 full members, with Railways Sports Control Board and Services Sports Control Board serving as associate members.
President Kalyan Chaubey is on the executive committee of the Gujarat State Football Association, vice-president NA Haris heads the Karnataka State Football Association, and treasurer Kipa Ajay is the secretary-general of the Arunachal Pradesh Football Association. In the AIFF executive committee, there are three more state unit presidents, three state association secretaries, and at least two joint-secretaries in their states.
To continue in the AIFF, they will have to leave their state posts. In the constitution sent to AIFF members, of which HT has a copy, Article 25.3c states that an AIFF executive committee office-bearer “shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association.”
Article 2S.3d states: “Similarly, if a person is elected as an Office-Bearer in a Member Association and holds a position of an Office-Bearer in the Executive Committee of the AIFF, he/she shall automatically be deemed to have vacated his/her position in the Member Association.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, three AIFF executive committee members told HT that they would resign from the national body. A former sports administrator HT spoke to said this was like asking members of parliament to stop representing their constituency upon becoming a minister. “Once you give up your position in the state, what do you go back to once your term in AIFF ends?” the former sports administrator said. The administrator preferred to remain anonymous given the sensitive nature of the issue.
FIFA does not impose this restriction. Six of its eight vice-presidents serving in the FIFA Council, the main decision-making body when the FIFA Congress is not in session, head continental bodies. Among the council’s remaining 28 members are presidents of seven national football federations, including Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia.
In its judgment on September 19, the Supreme Court noted that the clause requiring an AIFF official to vacate their state position had been deleted by former judge LN Rao when framing the draft constitution. Justice Rao, the judgment said, termed it an unjust disqualification. However, it was reinstated because “some stakeholders” were “against holding two offices simultaneously” to ensure that the AIFF official is not “overworked with responsibilities at a member association,” the judgment stated.
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