Can’t be taken lightly, sports ministry can take action as per law: Centre
NEW DELHI: Before being disbanded, the committee of administrators (CoA) informed the Supreme Court that ongoing forensic audit of the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) accounts has prima facie revealed massive siphoning of funds by its previous management headed by former Union minister and NCP leader Praful Patel.
The CoA’s counsel Gopal Shankaranarayanan told a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna that the forensic audit of AIFF’s accounts being conducted by Deloitte has found several financial irregularities. “In a preliminary report to the CoA, the forensic auditors have prima facie found substantial siphoning of funds by the previous administration,” he said.

In May, the SC had unseated the Patel-led executive council as it had overshot its tenure by two years and appointed the CoA headed by former SC judge A R Dave and comprising former chief election commissioner Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi and former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly.
Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, on whose petition the HC had started enforcing the National Sports Code and entrusted the management of several national sports bodies to CoAs or former judges, said that FIFA, in league with certain individuals, is attempting to protect those who embezzled AIFF’s funds. “The suspension of AIFF and threat to take away U-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup is happening because Deloitte has pointed out financial irregularities,” Mehra alleged.
For the Centre, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the findings of the forensic auditor cannot be taken lightly and requested the court to direct the Union sports ministry to take stringent action in accordance with law against those found to have siphoned AIFF funds.
When the SC intended to issue notice on the CoA’s contempt petition against Patel, the latter’s counsel Kapil Sibal requested the court to defer issuance of notice. Shankaranarayanan told the SC that the CoA is not pressing the contempt at this stage but alleged that Patel’s position in FIFA should be reconsidered.
When Sibal said that Patel has been elected to FIFA, Shankaranarayanan said Patel while heading AIFF got himself nominated to the Asian body from where he was sent to FIFA. “Patel should resign from FIFA,” he said. But Sibal with his known persuasive skills diffused the possible danger to his client.