CoA submits AIFF draft constitution to SC

Football Federation, which has been framed by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), has been submitted to the Supreme Court for its approval. It was submitted to the apex court on Friday, the AIFF said in a statement on Saturday.

AIFF acting general secretary Sunando Dhar said:"After a lengthy set of discussions with various stakeholders, the draft Constitution of the AIFF has finally been submitted to the honourable court. "I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the process, on this swift move forward, and hope that with the new constitution in place, we can move ahead with developing Indian football." The CoA, which has been appointed by the apex court on May 18 this year, comprises Justice (retired) Anil R Dave, former Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr SY Quraishi and former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly.

The apex court directed the CoA to assist in facilitating the adoption of the constitution and prepare electoral rolls for the purpose of conducting elections of the AIFF at the earliest. Since then, in the course of formulating the draft constitution, the CoA has "put in more than 150 hours of work and has spoken to all the AIFF's stakeholders, including state associations, FIFA, AFC, ISL and I-League clubs and considered suggestions forwarded by them".

Three days ago, the CoA sent the final draft constitution to world football governing body, FIFA. The exercise was in consonance with the strict deadlines set by the FIFA-AFC team that visited the country last month to take stock of the situation after the Supreme Court ousted the Praful Patel-led dispensation of the AIFF for not holding elections on time "After a lot of deliberation, we have finally narrowed down on a draft constitution