Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia on Saturday stated he was shocked on the “high level” of political interference within the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elections, which didn’t pan out as he would have favored.
Bhutia misplaced to BJP chief and former goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey within the election for the president’s publish. The 45-year-old Bhutia himself has dabbled in politics, having unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha and state meeting elections on TMC ticket in 2014 and 2016 respectively and based the Hamro Sikkim Party in his residence state. But he stated, the AIFF elections ought to have been fought with none “political interference”, and purely on soccer issues. “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 president election and I wanted to contribute with sincerity,” Bhutia advised PTI.
“If they (his opponents) were so confident of victory, why a powerful union minister had 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 stated.
Though Bhutia didn’t take the title of the union minister, his proposer within the polls and Rajasthan state affiliation president Manvendra Singh had on Friday alleged that regulation minister Kiren Rijiju was current on the resort and advised the members to vote in opposition to the previous India captain. Bhutia, one of many legends of the sport within the nation, stated he didn’t perceive why a central minister would spend a lot time with the voters the night time earlier than the AIFF elections, although he didn’t accuse Rijiju of canvassing in opposition to him. “Out of the 34 members of the electoral faculty, 33 (besides Gopalakrishna Kosaraju) had been taken to a ground of the resort and entry was denied to the entire ground. I couldn’t contact any of the voters, the community was down. “I attempted calling the secretary of Rajasthan affiliation, who’s a voter and whose president (Manvendra Singh) was my seconder, however I couldn’t attain him on cellphone.
“The political interference was a shocking thing to me and it was very unfortunate and a sad thing for Indian football.” Andhra Pradesh state affiliation president Kosaraju had seconded Bhutia.
New president Chaubey additionally admitted that Rijiju was current on the resort the place the voters had been staying however had termed Manvendra’s allegations a “complete lie”. Bhutia is likely one of the six former gamers co-opted to the AIFF govt committee as per the draft structure. He stated he’ll determine in a day or two whether or not to attend govt committee conferences or not.
On Friday, after shedding the presidential election, he had stated that he will probably be a part of the manager committee as a co-opted member.
“I am there (in the executive committee) as co-opted member. I did not attend the executive committee meeting today. I will decide in a day or two whether to attend executive committee meeting,” he stated with out elaborating a lot. Another soccer legend I M Vijayan, Shabbir Ali and Climax Lawrence are the opposite three male former gamers co-opted as govt committee members.
Thongam Tababi Devi and Pinky Magar are the 2 feminine former gamers co-opted as govt committee members. Vijayan was on Saturday made the chairman of the technical committee whereas Shabbir will head the advisory committee.
