FIFA women's football World Cup in India in October without an elected football governing body. Amidst cross-arguments between lawyer for constituent 36 football associations and advocate Rahul Mehra, who had triggered off the reforms with a PIL in the Delhi HC, joint secretary in Union sports ministry Siddhartha Singh Longjam made a spirited presentation about early finalisation of the AIFF constitution to bring it in sync with FIFA's requirements for hosting the international event. "In 2017, India hosted the FIFA U-17 men's World Cup and it gave rich experience to our junior players, some of whom graduated to the senior team and helped India qualify for the Asia Cup. Though the Indian women's team is ranked 56, it will get a chance to p lay with top teams of the world in October to enrich the players with international experience. A FIFA team has met the government officials and said that it would like AIFF to have a democratically elected body. We are apprehensive that in the absence of a constitution, there would not be any elections which could jeopardise hosting the event," Longjam said.
