AIFF Polls: Player power, puppets or battle for relevance?

Bhaichung Bhutia manages to, is it really player power breathing new life into a moribund football administration? Or that the puppet master can only be spoken of in hushed tones? Chaubey, a goalkeeper from the 1990s Tata Football Academy stable, always spoke of “relevance” outside of the football field. Despite an impressive array of ‘clubs played’, Chaubey, privately , would display that restlessness which standing between the posts evidently couldn’t quell. “As a player in India, you soon need to start thinking beyond football,” he’d say, as Indian sport entered the televised 2000s. As he found himself eventually relegated to the bench from first goalkeeper as his 15-year-old professional career progressed, Chaubey looked beyond. Clearly, the idea of coaching was not what would satiate him. He even considered modelling and acting in Bangla soaps at one time. He had the presence of mind to protect his face when roughed up by a rogue club-owner in Goa when the player rightfully dared to ask for dues owed to him, because “even if your career went nowhere, at least the face remained intact. it would serve me later.” Vernacular TV commentary would show life on the sideline as slicker, less sweaty, mic in hand, bespoke suit replacing the keeper’s jersey. In 2014, he would find his true calling when the BJP would come head-hunting in their mission for Bengal. Today (Thursday), on the eve the AIFF elections, as favourite, Chaubey’s search for relevance is coming full circle. But how much of this aspiration is being fulfilled by forces beyond his domain?

The member states who had rallied to help oust Praful Patel, and forced the call for fresh elections, abandoned their own ambition for office to en masse support Chaubey’s