FIFA lifts ban from Indian Football Federation after 11 days, schedules U-17 World Cup in India from 11-30th October 2022

FIFA, the world’s football governing body, on Friday lifted its ban on the All India Football Federation. The move means India will remain the hosts for the U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 in October.

This progress comes a few days after Supreme Court of India had disbanded the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and had urged the AIFF to revise their constitution in accordance with FIFA.

FIFA had suspended the AIFF, for the first time in its 85-year history, for “undue influence from third parties” and said the U-17 Women’s World Cup “cannot currently be held in India as planned,” and the revocation came 11 days after that.

“The Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension that was imposed on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) due to undue third-party influence,” the FIFA said in a statement.

“The decision was taken after FIFA received confirmation that the mandate of the committee of administrators that was set up to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been terminated and that the AIFF administration had regained full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs.”

FIFA said it and the AFC will continue to monitor the situation and will support the AIFF in conducting its elections in a timely manner.

The whole controversy that started in Indian football stopped with Praful Patel, who was the President of AIFF. He was accused of sitting on the chair of the presidency even after the completion of the time without holding the election.

Praful’s tenure started from the year 2009 and ended in 2020. Despite this, however, he continued to sit on the chair. Notably, the complaint of this entire matter reached the Supreme Court. The court superseded the entire board in May 2022 and constituted a committee to frame a new constitution.