AIFF Calls Meeting to Discuss Dismissal of Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has called an executive committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the dismissal of secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran who, however, is unlikely to be invited despite a high court order staying his termination of service.

One of items in the agenda of the meeting mentions: dismissal and termination of service of Dr Shaji Prabhakaran from the post of secretary-general.

“No, I have not been invited for Tuesday’s executive committee meeting of the AIFF,” Prabhakaran told.

“I wanted to be there and present my side of the story. I have even written a letter to the members but even then I have not been invited,” he added.

Prabhakaran was removed as secretary general on November 7 for “breach of trust” but a single bench of the Delhi High Court had on December 8 ordered an interim stay on his sacking.

In its latest order of January 19, the High Court pointed out that Prabhakaran was dismissed by the emergency committee of the AIFF whereas the federation’s constitution provides that only the executive committee has the power to do that.

The HC also said that the stay order of December 8 “does not act as a bar on the AIFF to hold the meetings of the executive committee for the purpose of terminating the tenure of the petitioner”.

Prabhakaran, on his part, asserted in his letter that he’s still the secretary general of the AIFF and should be invited to the meeting to explain his side of the story.

“My sincere request to each of you is that I be invited to the next gathering of the AIFF members, whether it is an Executive Committee meeting or an Annual General Meeting (or, for that matter, any other formal or informal meetings), whenever it is being planned,” Prabhakaran wrote in the letter addressed to the members of the executive committee.

“I would like to answer sincerely every question that our hon’ble members might have on their minds or on things where they have been told that I committed something wrong.

“I am still the Secretary General of the AIFF and thus, it is my right to be there and I should be heard by all the members who have entrusted me with this key responsibility.” Prabhakaran, a former FIFA development officer for South Central Asia and an ex Delhi Football president, said he has never been part of any irregularities in his life.

“If someone wants to destroy my credibility by just making casual, irresponsible and downright false charges without any proof to substantiate them, then do you think I should stand aside and allow it to happen? “I have never been part of any irregularities in my life and for me, football remains my god,” he wrote in the letter of December 24.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)