The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Monday decided to form an eight-member task force to look into the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) negotiations with its commercial partner Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL), a move that was opposed by the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia.
This was decided during the apex body's executive committee meeting at the Football House, where they met to discuss the MRA proposal given to the federation by FSDL.
Former India captain Bhutia, who is part of the executive committee and attended the meeting, however, opposed the formation of the task force for MRA negotiations and asked the federation to wait for the Supreme Court judgement on new Constitution of the AIFF.
"The draft constitution of the AIFF prepared by former SC judge L Nageswara Rao says the ISL should be organised and controlled by the AIFF and in partnership with private bodies. The SC verdict is expected to come in a month's time and the negotiations can wait for a while.
"Otherwise there could be confusion after the SC verdict comes. I said the negotiations should not be rushed but the executive committee formed a task force," Bhutia told PTI.
The task force will consist of AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, vice-president N A Haris, treasurer Kipa Ajay, secretary general P Anilkumar, deputy secretary general
Among other developments, Chaubey proposed that two renowned coaches - Bimal Ghosh and Armando Colaco - be nominated as advisors to the AIFF president.
Ghosh and Colaco, in coordination with technical director Syed Sabir Pasha, national teams director Subrata Paul, technical committee chairperson IM Vijayan, and deputy chairperson Shabbir Ali, will support the chief coaches of the men's and women's national teams across all age categories.
They will coordinate with the coaches on matters such as the requirement for the duration of camps, scouting, and exposure matches for the respective teams. The task force will also submit a quarterly report on the same to the AIFF.
Former India goalkeeper Subrata Paul submitted a report on the senior men's team's AFC Asian Cup 2027 final round qualifier against Bangladesh held on March 25 at Shillong. India were held to a goalless draw by Bangladesh in the match.
The committee also proposed the formation of a four-member task force consisting of DIG CISF Jitender Rana, Services Sports Control Board secretary Varun Singh, Railway Sports Promotion Board secretary Prem Chand Lochab, and renowned coach Bimal Ghosh.
The task force is to prepare a feasibility report on the institutional league/tournament that the AIFF intends to revive, and submit a report to the Federation in 30 days.
The executive committee suggested that a normalisation committee be formed that will expedite the conduct of elections in the Jammu & Kashmir Football Association and the Tamil Nadu Football Association.
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