(Reuters) – Former India goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey has been elected the new president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), it said on Friday, a week after world soccer’s governing body FIFA lifted the ban imposed on it for undue third-party influence.
India’s top court disbanded the AIFF in May and appointed a Committee of Administrators to govern the sport, amend the AIFF’s constitution and conduct elections that had been pending for 18 months, leading to FIFA’s suspension.
The elections of the AIFF, formerly led by FIFA Council member Praful Patel, were due to be held by December 2020 but delayed due to an impasse over amendments to its constitution.
The AIFF said on Friday that Chaubey, currently a politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, was elected president after the federation conducted the general elections as per the Supreme Court’s order.
With representatives from India’s 34 state associations present at the Football House in New Delhi, Chaubey prevailed with 33 votes, with former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia his only rival with one vote.
N.A. Haris, a politician from Congress in Karnataka, was elected vice president, the AIFF said, adding that 14 members of the Executive Committee were elected unopposed.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
