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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Amit Anand Choudhary | TNN

AIFF Mess: SC tells CoA, Centre to speak to FIFA

NEW DELHI: As FIFA threatened to impose a ban on India and away the rights to host the U-17 Women's World Cup, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday asked court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the Centre to hold talks and engage with the international body to ensure that the tournament is held in the country smoothly. The apex court also told state football association not to act as spoilers.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan brought to SC's notice that former president of All India Football Federation, Praful Patel, and some state associations were orchestrating a campaign to delay implementation of SC's order to hold election for executive committee of AIFF which was needed to be done on urgent basis.

FIFA had earlier said that an elected body must be put in place to organise the World Cup and subsequently the court also passed an order last week to hold the poll.

A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud said that the court could not engage with FIFA a s it was not before the court and CoA and the Centre should hold talks to sort out the issue. Agreeing to grant an urgent hearing to resolve the crisis, the bench posted the case for Thursday.

In the meanwhile, the court said that dialogue is the only way to resolve the problem and asked CoA and the Centre to engage with FIFA. "Dialogue is the way. We cannot deal with the international body which is not before us. You will have to engage with FIFA to ensure that needful is done," the court told additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain, who was appearing for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

As allegations were made against state association for delaying the election process, the court told their lawyer to convey them not to act as a spoiler. The CoA filed a contempt petition against Patel and the Secretary of Karnataka, Odisha, Mizoram, Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal and Punjab associations.

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