Praful Patel Elected Unopposed as AIFF President for Third Time

New Delhi: Praful Patel was on Wednesday re-elected unopposed as the president of All India Football Federation for a four-year term - his third successive - and he promised to run AIFF in a "transparent" manner.

The Annual General Meeting was held here after the Delhi High Court yesterday vacated a stay on the elections.

The electoral process was completed in the presence of the appointed returning officer Justice Bipin Chandra Kandpal (Retd.) who declared Patel elected along with the Executive Committee for the term 2017-2020.

Patel, a former Union Minister, served as acting president for one year after long-time head Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi suffered a cardiac arrest in 2008. He took over as full time president in October 2009 before being re-elected for the top job in December 2012.

"On behalf of the AIFF, I can assure you of the highest standard of ethics and transparency," Patel said after being re-elected.

Dilip Kumar Singh attended the AGM as an observer on behalf of the Government of India, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, while Kuldeep Vats was the observer on behalf of the Indian Olympic Association.

Besides, Purushottam Kattel, International Relations Officer, Asian Football Confederation and Shaji Prabhakaran, FIFA Regional Developmental Officer, South and Central Asia were also present on the occasion.

Chirag Tanna and Rochak Langer represented FSDL in the AGM.

Elected members: Praful Patel (re-elected as President), Subrata Dutta (re-elected as Vice-President, East), K M I Mather (re-elected as Vice-President, South), Subhash Chopra (re-elected as Vice-President, North), Larsing Sawyan (re-elected as Vice-President, North-East), Manavendra Singh (elected as Vice-President, West), ZA Thakur (re-elected as Treasurer), A R Khaleel (re-elected as Executive Committee member, South), Jessiah Villavarayar (re-elected as Executive Committee member, South), Deepak Kumar (elected as Executive Committee member, North), Deepak Sharma (elected as Executive Committee member, North), Ghulam Rabbani (re-elected as Executive Committee member, East), Sanjay Behera (re-elected as Executive Committee member, East), Amit Ranjan Dev (re-elected as Executive Committee member, West), Gulab Chauhan (elected as Executive Committee member, West), M N Brahma (elected as Executive Committee member, North-East), Lalnighinglova Hmar (elected as Executive Committee member, North-East).

Meanwhile, the Special General Body Meeting, which was also held unanimously, approved the proposed amendments to the AIFF Constitution.

The salient features of the amendments are as follows:

* To bring the AIFF constitution in line with the FIFA and the AFC constitution.

*To clarify and modify certain definitions to avoid anomalies and ambiguities.

*To bring in more transparency in governance by including independent members in committees like finance and audit, development and judicial committees.

*The composition of the AIFF Executive Committee will be of 20 members. Two woman members are to be included one to be elected as the vice president in the next AGM and another to be appointed by the Executive Committee.

*The Executive Committee would also include a former Indian International player who has represented India in a minimum of 25 Official International matches.

*Terms of references of the standing and judicial committees have also been amended to bring in better governance and transparency, and remove existing ambiguities.