AIFF amends its constitution in line with Sports Code

New Delhi: All India Football Federation (AIFF) today amended its constitution to bring the age and tenure rule in line with the Sports Code in a Special General Body Meeting here.

The AIFF had followed the age and tenure rule as per the Sports Code of the government during its elections in 2012, though it had stopped short of making a formal amendment to its constitution.

The SGBM amended the constitution after the Sports Ministry had set December 31 deadline for the National Sports Federations to bring the age and tenure rule in line with the Code.

The SGBM unanimously adopted the amendments to the constitution which include - The president, the vice-presidents, the treasurer and the members of the executive committee shall be elected by the General Body for a period of four years, however, the president and the treasurer shall cease to hold that post on attaining 70 years of age; the president may hold the office for a maximum period of twelve years with or without break; and the treasurer may serve a maximum of two successive terms of four years each after which a minimum cooling off period of four years will apply to seek fresh election.

"Keeping in mind the best practices which we should follow, we have some amendments to make. There are certain principles to be adopted by us in view of the directives from the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs," AIFF president Praful Patel said.

"We are a National Sports Federation and therefore we have to follow the guidelines of the Ministry and the Government of India from time to time. Keeping all the issues in mind we have adopted the necessary changes which to bring our constitution in line with the Sports Code.

"There were certain anomalies in our constitution which needed to be changed as was proposed by Subrata Dutta. Now our constitution has absolute clarity," he added.

Patel also chaired the Annual General Body Meeting (AGBM) which was held after the SGBM at the Football House here.

Besides Patel, AIFF general secretary Kushal Das, vice-presidents Subrata Dutta, KMI Mather, Larsing Sawyan, Subhash Chopra, treasurer Hardev Jadeja, AIFF executive committee members and member associations attended the AGBM and SGBM.

Shaji Prabhakaran, FIFA Regional Developmental Officer, South and Central Asia and IMG-R representatives Ashu Jindal and Priti Srivastava also attended the AGBM.

Patel also laid stress on the three important years from 2015 to 2017 when apart from hosting the prestigious FIFA U-17 World Cup, India may also get the right to host the Club World Cup.

"We are officially bidding for the Club World Cup in January 2014," he informed.