Kalyan Chaubey beat Bhaichung Bhutia to become president of All India Football Federation
Former Indian soccer player Kalyan Chaubey was elected president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday, September 2.
Chaubey, a former star of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal is the favored candidate considering the support he has received from football associations across the country.
During Friday’s election for the AIFF presidency, 45-year-old Bhaichung Bhutia, one of the biggest legends of Indian football, failed to get support from his state association – Sikkim – news agency PTI reported.
While Bhutia’s candidacy made the election more appealing than what would have happened if he hadn’t joined the fight, Chaubey, also 45, is believed to be the front-runner for the job. started with backing from politically important state associations such as Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh, PTI reported.
Bhutia’s opponent in the poll, Chaubey is a graduate of the famous Tata Football Academy (TFA) and was the best player of the 1996 golden age group.
The new AIFF distribution body will have a lot going on in it, the most important of which is the smooth conduct of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in October.
After the deadline to withdraw the right to stand for election ended at 1pm on Tuesday, return officer Umesh Sinha released the final list of candidates for each post for the polls.
The electorate of 34 representatives from state associations was issued by the returning officer.
Elections will be held for the positions of a president, a vice president, a treasurer and 14 executive committee members. Six former players – four men and two women – will be selected as members of the voting executive committee later.
All of the elected officeholders – the president, vice president and treasurer as well as the 14 members of the Executive Committee who will be elected not to run for office – are expected to take over on Friday. The co-op selection of six former players – four men and two women – is also set to take place on Friday.
Since only 14 candidates were vying for as many executive committee positions, they were all declared elected.
They are GP Palguna, Avijit Paul, P Anilkumar, Valanka Natasha Alemao, Maloji Raje Chhatrapati, Menla Ethenpa, Mohan Lal, Arif Ali, K Neibou Sekhose, Lalnghinlova Hmar, Deepak Sharma, Vijay Bali and Syed Imtiaz Husain.
As part of the representation of players, Bhutia, IM Vijayan, Shabbir Ali, Climax Lawrence, who have played the maximum number of matches for India between men, are set to join the EC.
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