AIFF looks for quick reversal of suspension

Panaji: The All India Football Federation has asked FIFA, the governing body for world football, to reconsider its decision of suspending AIFF, particularly since both conditions spelled out in the suspension letter have now been met.
The Supreme Court on Monday disbanded the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which it had put in charge of AIFF on May 18 when president Praful Patel and his committee were ousted. The AIFF administration is now fully in charge of the federation’s daily affairs with acting general secretary Sunando Dhar at the helm of affairs.
AIFF emailed the Supreme Court’s order to FIFA within minutes after it was available on Monday and Dhar has now written to secretary general Fatma Samoura.
“Since the conditions set out in your letter for lifting of the suspension stand satisfied, we request that an order to that effect be passed at the earliest for the AIFF to continue with the smooth running of football in India,” Dhar wrote in his letter on Tuesday.
FIFA has not responded as yet but indications are that the suspension will be lifted this week itself.
According to sources, the decision to lift the suspension needs to be taken by the Bureau, a seven-member panel within the larger FIFA Council that has 37 members. The Bureau of the Council consists of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and six continental heads from Asia, Africa, North and Central America, South America, Oceania and Europe.
AIFF is looking for a quick reversal of suspension from FIFA since several international assignments are now in a state of suspense.
Gokulam Kerala have already returned home from Tashkent without participating in the AFC Women’s Club Championship, which they had qualified as Indian Women’s League (IWL) champions.
ATK Mohun Bagan believe their AFC Cup inter-zone semifinal will go ahead as scheduled on September 7 but will need FIFA to confirm that the ban is no longer in place.
More importantly, India’s international friendlies against Vietnam and Singapore during the September window have come under a cloud. A day after the suspension, the Vietnam Football Federation wrote to AIFF that it is unable to host India following FIFA’s directives not to have any sporting contact with the country.
Vietnam, though, have not made an official announcement and AIFF remains confident of a solution to the impasse in the next 48 to 72 hours.
“We are just waiting for the FIFA letter stating suspension has been lifted. We are confident that we can go ahead with the international friendlies in September,” said a senior official.