AIFF row explained: Will FIFA ban India in consequence of 'third-party intervention'?

The future of the Indian football and  All India Football Federation (AIFF) seems to be in the dark after Praful Patel was removed from the presidency post by the Supreme Court. While Praful Patel's third term was supposed to end back in December 2020, he held onto his position due to a pending case in the Supreme Court seeking clarity on the status of the constitution of AIFF.

With Supreme Court now appointing a CoA that comprises Bhaskar Ganguly, SY Qureshi and Anil Dave, AIFF could get banned by FIFA due to third party intervention.

How could AIFF be affected due to FIFA ban?

If FIFA decides to ban India due to third party interference then all the football activities in the country will come to a standstill. If the ban comes into effect India is likely to lose hosting FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup scheduled to take place in October. The event will then be rescheduled.

India will be playing three matches in the 2023 AFC Cup Qualifiers next month but in case of a ban, those matches will be called off. Besides the senior team, the junior team will also be in trouble. While international matches will be affected, domestic tournaments like ISL and I league will continue to take place since it does not come under FIFA jurisdiction. The FIFA ban will also affect the transfers of overseas players as they will not be allowed to play.

Will FIFA impose a ban on Indian Football?

AIFF has not held elections for the past two seasons and COA will be taking care of the AIFF for the first time in its 85-year-old history. With COA coming into play there are chances that  FIFA might term this decision as ‘third-party interference’ in football operations, which could result in AIFF getting banned.  

This will not be the first time that FIFA will be imposing a ban on the football body of any country on account of trouble within member associations.

Previous instances when FIFA imposed a ban on Football Federations 

In 2014, Indonesia was banned for a year after its Sports Ministry and football federation remained at loggerheads over who was running the sport in the country. Another instance of FIFA ban was in 2015, and it was Kuwait Football Association on the receiving end because the government had drafted and imposed a sports bill that infringed upon the right of the country’s football federation to exist independently. Most recently the governing bodies of  Zimbabwe and Kenya were banned for organizational flaws which needed third-party interference.