NEW DELHI, Oct 19: In a change of guard since 1988, Praful Patel will be formally installed as the president of the All India Football Federation in place of ailing Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi at the Annual General Body Meeting of the AIFF on Tuesday.
Patel, the seniormost vice-president of the national body, has been the de facto head since Dasmunsi suffered a cardiac arrest in October last year and going by the constitution of the AIFF he will be elected as its president tomorrow.
Article 32 (6) of the AIFF Constitution says if the president is permanently or temporarily prevented from performing his official function, the longest serving Vice-President shall represent him until the next Annual General Body Meeting. The AGM shall elect a new President, if necessary.
Despite his illness, Dasmunsi was elected unopposed last December and Patel was made acting president.
Patel will be the only candidate to file his nomination tomorrow and he will be elected unopposed.
This will bring curtains to Dasmunsi’s 20-year reign as head of the national football body.
After the AGM, the AIFF wll felicitate national captain Bhaichung Bhutia for his 100th appearance for the country during the Nehru Cup held here earlier this here.
Bhutia is the 37th Asian and 152nd international footballer to have played more than 100 matches for his country.
The Sikkimese snipper is being involved in a bitter suspension row with Mohun Bagan but has been granted an interim relief to play for East Bengal in I-League. After his election as AIFF chief, Patel, who has been instrumental in bringing Rs 25 crore from the cash-rich Indian Cricket Board for development of football, will have to clear the mess the national body is currently in.
The fate of at least half a dozen tournaments are hanging in uncertainty, not to speak of the interview of the twin posts of AIFF General Secretary and I-League Chief Executive Officer.
The National Under-16 and Under-19 for boys, the National Under-19 for girls, Under-13 Festivals for boys and girls were to be held by October or November but no dates have been fixed as yet nor the host state has been finalised.
The Under-19 I-League, an important part of the youth development programme, was supposed to start by this month but nothing has been heard of it till now.
Similarly, the last Executive Committee meeting on August 30 had finalised Federation Cup final round in Guwahati from December 15 and the qualifiers from this month but there is no clue of when the qualifiers will start.
The careless functioning of the AIFF has also come under severe criticism from some of the candidates for the post of general secretary.
The August Executive Committee meeting fixed the date of interview for General Secretary on September 23 and 24 but none of the eight candidates for the post and five for I-League CEO have got their interview call letters.
One candidate has even gone to the extent of saying that some in the AIFF have been trying to prolong the current setup with Alberto Colaco as general secretary for some more time.
"It has been a month that the Executive Committee fixed the date of interview. It is a shame that the national football body has been run like this. What is the use of ExCo if its decisions were to be kept at abeyance?" he said on condition of anonymity.
"It seems nobody, be it the acting president or general secretary, cares about football matters. If they want to prolong the current setup why did they call for applying for the posts," he added.
The appointment of the I-League CEO was also long pending and when the advertisements came out in July it was thought that the national body means business and a new man will take office before the third edition of the league which began on October 1. (PTI)
