Former Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia, expressed his shock on Saturday at the “high level” of political intervention in AIFF elections, which didn’t go as well as he had hoped
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- AIFF elections should have been fought without any political interference: Baichung Bhutia
- Bhaichung Bhutia expressed shock at the extent of political interference in the AIFF elections
- Bhutia was defeated in the race for president by BJP leader Kalyan Chaubey
Bhaichung Bhutia, a former captain of India, expressed his shock at the “high level” of political intervention in the elections for the All India Football Federation (AIFF). Notably, Bhaichung Bhutia was defeated in the race for president by BJP leader and former goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey.
The 45-year-old Bhaichung Bhutia claimed that only football-related issues should have been debated at the AIFF elections, free from “political interference.”
“I was shocked because I personally did not expect that the political interference (in AIFF elections) would be of such a high level. I thought it’s a football presidential election and I wanted to contribute with sincerity,” Bhutia was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
“If they (his opponents) were so confident of victory, why a powerful union minister have to come at the hotel (where the voters were staying) at 9pm (on Thursday) and stay there till 2am in the morning of election day (on Friday) and take all of them to a particular floor of the hotel,” he said.
“Out of the 34 members of the electoral college, 33 (except Gopalakrishna Kosaraju) were taken to a floor of the hotel and access was denied to the whole floor. I could not contact any of the voters, the network was down.
“I tried calling the secretary of Rajasthan association, who is a voter and whose president (Manvendra Singh) was my second, but I could not reach him on the phone.
“The political interference was a shocking thing to me and it was very unfortunate and a sad thing for Indian football.”
“I am there ( on the executive committee) as a co-opted member. I did not attend the executive committee meeting today. I will decide in a day or two whether to attend the executive committee meeting,” he said without elaborating much.
I M Vijayan, another football star, Shabbir Ali, and Climax Lawrence are the other three male ex-players chosen to serve on the executive committee. The two previous female athletes who were chosen to serve on the executive committee are Thongam Tababi Devi and Pinky Magar.
On Saturday, Vijayan was appointed to lead the technical committee, with Shabbir in charge of the advisory committee.
