New Delhi: As abruptly as it withdrew its bid for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup has the All India Football Federation expressed an interest to host the 2031 edition of the continental tournament.
India and Saudi Arabia were shortlisted as potential hosts for the 2027 edition in October 2022 by the Asian Football Confederations executive committee. But before the AFC could pick the host at its Congress in February 2023, the AIFF pulled out suddenly, insisting on having other priorities.
“As per the strategic Roadmap of the Federation, which will be announced later this month, the AIFF management thinks the hosting of big events doesn’t fit into the Federation’s strategic priorities. Our current focus is building the foundations of a proper footballing structure before thinking of hosting bigger events like the AFC Asian Cup,” the AIFF’s executive committee had said in a statement on December 5, 2022.
“The executive committee has decided that the overall strategy of the federation currently remains on focusing on the fundamental goals to strengthen our football at every level from grassroots to youth development,” president Kalyan Chaubey had said then.
New dream
What has changed in the following two years for the AIFF to show interest in hosting the tournament’s 20th edition in 2031? FIFA rankings show India have slipped to 127th in the latest chart from the 99th spot in July 2023, struggling to beat much lower-placed nations like Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
While the need to qualify for the continental showpiece event is routinely stressed as a prerequisite for actual development, India need to top their group also involving Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Singapore to qualify for the 2027 edition.
After being held goalless in Guwahati by Bangladesh on March 25, it is safe to say they haven’t started on an encouraging note. Adding to this on-pitch disappointment is the numerous allegations of malpractice and misconduct, with complaints against the president and currently deposed secretary general pending at AIFF’s ethics committee.
Cash shortage has also forced the Super Cup to be reduced to a knockout tournament, discarding initial plans of being a year-round event. Such is the miasma that the federation is yet to find any willing entity to be its marketing partner should its 15-year marketing rights deal with Reliance-subsidiary Football Sports Development Limited doesn’t get renewed beyond December.
In the form of a no-cash deal renewal proposal, initial negotiations with FSDL have only brought forth the state of misery and poverty of the AIFF. Though it hasn’t stopped Chaubey from floating another dream of hosting the Asian Cup, despite it not being discussed at length at its executive committee meeting on April 7.
An encouragement from the sports ministry is all it took to inform the AFC of India’s interest, though concrete plans are yet to be drawn up. Deliverance on promise is a matter in which the AIFF president has come up consistently short in recent times, which its former director of media and communications Jaydeep Basu has pointed out.
Through a mail, Basu has reminded its executive committee members how Chaubey’s misguided statements and announcements has left the AIFF with egg on its face, more than once, starting with an acknowledgement of Churchill Brothers as I-League champions at its Ex Co meeting even before the appeals committee could hear the matter.
Within the first six months of assuming office in September 2022, he had announced a plan to introduce VAR (Lite) on March 19, 2023, to eradicate refereeing errors from Indian football. But 12 months on, no word from Football House has emerged regarding it, leading to escalation of “constant attacks” on the federation.
Faux pas after faux pas
On October 17, 2023, Chaubey’s declaration of FIFA agreeing to depute its head of refereeing Pierluigi Collina to conduct coaching sessions with Indian officials turned it to be brilliant “name-dropping tactic”. But it has only been successful in lowering the AIFF’s image as no further communication has happened on it since.
Floating the idea of co-hosting the 2034 World Cup with Saudi Arabia at its executive committee meeting on November 9, 2023, was another ill-advised plan as no communication was established with either FIFA or Saudi Arabia over it. Saudi was the only country to bid and in December 2024, FIFA appointed the Gulf country to host the mega event.
In the same Ex Co meeting, Chaubey’s announcement of rebranding the 2023-24 edition of the Santosh Trophy as the FIFA Santosh Trophy, and insisting that “a team of FIFA officials will come to have a meeting with Arunachal Pradesh officials on the conduct of the tournament” turned out to be another “false promise”.
Promise of arranging chartered flights for the Indian men’s senior national team to fly to Abha, Saudi Arabia, for their World Cup qualifier against Afghanistan on March 21, 2024, was grounded even before it could take off, leading to an “exhausted bunch” of players and prompting a “media backlash”.
Formation of a task force to collect data on footballers who are either Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) has turned out to be another hoax as apart from naming Samit Thapa as chairperson, the AIFF is yet to name any other member, with the committee yet to conduct any meeting since the announcement on August 14, 2023.
“It was one of Kalyan Chaubey’s sheer publicity stunts. My hands are aching after typing out such a long email. Otherwise, I could have added many more instances of Kalyan Chaubey’s astonishing inefficiency,” Basu said.
“Every time he tries to speak, he ends up putting his foot in his mouth and instantly lowering the image of the AIFF.”
MoU with Saudi
While pulling out of the 2027 Asian Cup hosting race, the AIFF had simultaneously signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation to “allow a wide range of activations, including the provision of technological support, the organisation and hosting of youth competitions for both men and women on a regular basis, as well as exchange of football and governance experts”.
But apart from hosting three knockout matches of the 2022-23 Santosh Trophy in Saudi Arabia, enhanced co-operation to “create win-win situation for both the federations”, as claimed in AIFF’s press statement on October 6, 2022, is yet to take place.
Highlighting vested interests behind the signing of MoU with Saudi, former Andhra Pradesh Football Association president GopalaKrishna Kosarju on Feb 24 had urged Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to launch an enquiry into alleged “mass fooling”.
He has claimed that the AIFF ignored pre-bidding expense of Rs 72 lakh for 2027 Asian Cup bid and exhausted public funds to the tune of Rs 90 lakh to host knockout matches of Santosh Trophy in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry is yet to comment or take action in the matter.
After pulling out of race to host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in December 2022, what has changed in the following two years for the AIFF to show interest in hosting its 2031 edition? Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
