Fears over FIFA ban ease with approved Constitution

Panaji: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is confident that it has avoided a potential FIFA ban after sending the approved Constitution to the governing body for world football, last week.FIFA had provided AIFF with a deadline of Oct 30 to get a definitive order from the Supreme Court and adopt the Constitution, in full alignment with mandatory provisions of FIFA and AFC Statutes and regulations.“We have already sent FIFA the revised Constitution, all Supreme Court judgments, and the two corrections (to the clauses). With this, hopefully, we have met the FIFA deadline. It was very tightrope walk for us,” AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan told TOI.According to sources, AIFF provided FIFA with all Supreme Court judgments on Oct 27 and sent the revised constitution three days later. The governing body for world football has been closely monitoring the legal proceedings.AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey and Satyanarayan also met senior FIFA officials in Riyadh and informed them that the recent Supreme Court verdict restores the independence of AIFF to amend its Constitution in line with the requirements of FIFA and AFC, without the need for further judicial intervention.

Chaubey and Satyanarayan were recently in Riyadh for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Member Associations and Regional Associations Presidents’ and General Secretaries’ Conference 2025.“It was tough to put everything in place since we had only four weeks to meet the Supreme Court deadline. Even the FIFA deadline has been met. I don’t think there will be any problem (with FIFA). The cloud of uncertainty has been finally cleared.

Now, we have to wait and see when the Sports Act comes into force. All national federations will have to adopt (provisions of the Act) so that there is uniformity,” said Satyanarayan.Last month, FIFA raised concerns over two clauses in the draft constitution. The first was Article 23.3 which states that any amendment “shall not be given effect to without the leave of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” while Article 25.3 (c) and (d), pertaining to dual posts at state and federation for elected office office-bearers, also caused discomfort.While the Supreme Court has clarified Article 23.3 “need not be adopted” while directing the federation to be “governed by laws that are applicable to such bodies, which will include the National Sports Governance Act”, Articles 25.3(c) and (d) will be applicable to present office bearers only at the end of their term in Sept next year.