Urgent move by court to lift FIFA ban; dissolves Committee of Administrators, approves FIFA's suggestions

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has dissolved the Committee of Administrators(CoA) and directed to hand over the day-to-day management of the federation to the Acting General Secretary . The Supreme Court has expressed hope that with the dissolution of CoA, FIFA will lift its ban on India.

The Supreme Court has extended the election of All India Football Federation's executive council by a week. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Samar Bansal were also asked to assist the court as amicus curiae to examine the new draft constitution.

FIFA supended AIFF citing "third-party interference" in the appointment of CoA by Supreme Court. Following this, the Central Government requested the Supreme Court to immediately terminate the Committee of Administrators and to hand over the responsibility of the day-to-day activities to the Acting General Secretary . The Supreme Court accepted this demand. The earlier deadline for completing the elections to the Federation's Executive Council was August 28. The Executive Council has a total of 23 members. Out of this 17 people are to be selected. Eminent players are nominated for the remaining 6 positions. Supreme Court bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna has also directed that 4 of them should be men and 2 women.

FIFA had informed that it would consider lifting the ban if the administration was handed over to the All India Football Federation. The Executive Committee is elected by 36 associations of States and Union Territories. Umesh Sinha and Tapas Bhattacharya have been decided as returning officers for the election.