The All India Football Federation was hurled into crisis after its top-brass decided to remove its secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran citing breach of trust. The decision appeared to be the culmination of months of disagreement happening within the executive committee over several issues related to the sports finances and administration.
According to sources, the AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey took the decision of removing Prabhakaran after consulting the executive committee members late on Tuesday.
“The All India Football Federation hereby announces that the services of Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran have been terminated due to breach of trust with immediate effect as of November 7, 2023,” the federation said in a brief release to the media. The decision is set to be ratified by the AIFF executive committee which will meet at Delhi on Thursday.
The AIFF deputy secretary, M. Satyanarayan, has been asked to take charge as acting secretary general till a replacement is decided on.
According to AIFF sources, Prabhakaran earned the displeasure of the president and executive committee members owing to some arbitrary decisions and actions.
Prabhakaran was one of the key associates of Chaubey, who swept to power in September 2022, replacing the committee led by Praful Patel, who ruled the federation for 13 years.
Under the leadership of Chaubey and Prabhakaran, the new regime took a number of decisions to reform the AIFF’s functioning and announced a strategic roadmap named “Vision 2047” in January this year. The senior national men’s team made it to the top-100 in the FIFA rankings for the first time since 2018 as the AIFF sought to achieve more targets under its “Vision” plan.
Recently the high profile secretary general faced a simmering discontentment within the executive committee and questions were raised regarding his high compensation and some financial decisions.
The misgivings reached such a pass that the AIFF president appointed a core committee apparently to oversee the activities of Prabhakaran in key areas of decision-making.
“AIFF’s decision to terminate me comes as a shock. We were working as a team. Charging me for ‘breach of trust’ is a massive allegation. More on this later. I remain a servant of the beautiful game and thank you all who have supported me in my honest effort for Indian football,” Prabhakaran later posted on X.
