Worried about present situation in AIFF: Praful Patel

Praful Patel said he has no desire in returning as president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). He held that post from 2009 to 2022 and, as senior vice-president, had to step up when Priya Ranjan Das Munshi fell ill in 2008. In that time, Patel also served as senior vice-president in Asian Football Confederation (AFC), vice-president at South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) and was a FIFA Council member.

As head of AIFF, Patel oversaw the exit of Zee as commercial partner and got in IMG-Reliance. ISL became India’s top league on his watch, with legacy clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal being part of it. India hosted the under-17 men’s World Cup in 2017, the men’s team returned to the top 100 in FIFA rankings and AIFF won the bid to stage the under-17 women’s World Cup. In short, Patel’s been there, done that.

“But I cannot also say that I don’t care what happens. Of course, I care because I am a stakeholder,” he said over the phone on Tuesday. “To whatever extent I can, I must also guide people, make them aware.”

As president of the Western India Football Association (WIFA), Patel attended an online special general meeting of the AIFF on Sunday. At the meeting, AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey’s proposal to break the federation’s fixed deposits to meet expenses arising out of international friendlies against Brazil and Uruguay was rejected, reports said. This was after Chaubey had told an SGM in Kolkata on October 4 that there would be no financial burden on AIFF.

“I am worried about the present situation and the very challenging financial position AIFF finds itself in,” said Patel, 69.

The issue of breaking AIFF’s fixed deposits, said to be around ₹20 crore, came up while confirming the minutes of the previous SGM which Patel did not attend. Speaking separately, an AIFF official said that at the meeting Chaubey inquired if the fixed deposits could be liquidated with the assurance that the money would be returned later.

Members at the SGM did not agree, the official said. “After the event is over, it can be difficult to raise money. So, the members said: ‘You can’t break the fixed deposit. How will we run AIFF? How will salaries be paid?’ Since he has said he will bring the money, why should AIFF break its fixed deposits, we asked.”

Federation officials said dues of vendors and agents are yet to be cleared and around ₹25 crore is due to the Brazil and Uruguay federations.

At the SGM on Sunday, Chaubey said he would share details of income and expenditure with a committee constituted by AIFF and chaired by vice-president NA Haris, according to PTI. Haris told the SGM that the executive committee had decided earlier that the fixed deposits would not be used.

According to an AIFF executive committee member, the fixed deposits yield an annual interest of over ₹1 crore. The member said their value grew in the last four years of Patel’s stint.

Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia had opposed the idea of hosting Panama, Brazil and Uruguay. Bhutia, also an AIFF executive committee member, had said India should instead play the FIFA ASEAN Cup being held in the same international window (Sept 21-Oct 6). Those are teams India can measure themselves against, he had said.

“If Brazil were coming free of cost to play a friendly, I would have no problem with that. But to pay Brazil ₹50-70 crore and play a friendly at this moment, the timing is not right,” Bhutia said in August.

Bhutia had also stated his opposition to playing Brazil at an executive committee meeting earlier that month. At that meeting, AIFF had said it had a deficit of ₹11.23 crore. By then, AIFF had stopped receiving ₹50 crore it did annually from its commercial partner.

Raising the money would not have been difficult, said one of the officials mentioned above. “But if Reliance leaves, if Tata leaves, people's faith in Indian football gets shaken completely. Big groups came in and gradually over the past four years they left. That is the essence of the story.”

Last December, Football Sports Development Limited, owned by Reliance Industries, didn’t renew as a commercial partner of the AIFF. In July, Jamshedpur FC, owned by Tata Steel, disbanded the first team and pulled out of the Indian Super League. Jamshedpur FC transferred their shares and ISL sporting licence to Churchill Brothers.

The AIFF elections are scheduled for December 20. Chaubey’s committee took charge in September 2022 after he beat Bhutia 33-1 in the election to the president’s post.