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SPORTS:
FOOTBALL
Members Allege Misuse Of Funds
Some
people might find that hard to believe. A group of ousted AIFF members
led by Indian Football Association (IFA) Joint Secretary Ranjit Gupta
certainly think Das Munshi has been channelling federation funds into
purposes unrelated to football. "He's a full-time politician,"
Gupta points out. "How can he give total commitment to football?"
Gupta, who slapped a lawsuit on Das Munshi and other top AIFF office-bearers,
claims the funds misappropriation goes back to 1996 which was the most
cash-flush year for the AIFF; that year, the National Football League
got its first big sponsor, Philips; the Federation Cup found a generous
backer in Kalyani Black Label and the Nehru Cup was taken over by Eicher.
A series of events have since turned the heat on
AIFF's financial dealings.
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OFF SIDE
TV rights for the $150,000 (Rs 69 lakh)
Sahara Millennium Cup 2001 were awarded without bidding. Broken
promises and organisational hiccups marred the event, turning it
into an Indian football flop show.
A $250,000 (Rs 1.15 crore) FIFA Youth
Development Fund grant given to India in 1999 was frozen following
complaints that AIFF officials were siphoning off the money for
purposes other than football. A FIFA audit is likely.
An out of court settlement with IMG cost
AIFF Rs 2.5 crore after the AIFF overturned a TV-rights contract
with Star Sports in 1998. AIFF had switched to Doordarshan without
the consent of IMG, its marketing rights partner.
An internal AIFF audit in 1996, Indian
football's richest year, revealed that Rs 2.5 crore could not be
accounted for. It forms the basis of an ongoing lawsuit.
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In 1996, Gupta and then AIFF secretary K.N. Mour
found anomalies in bills submitted by Leisure Sports Management, (LSM),
the part-event managers, for matches held in 1996. An internal auditor
found that Rs 2.5 crore wasn't accounted for. At the AIFF's Annual General
Meeting that year, the 1996-97 accounts were provisionally passed. Das
Munshi was asked to take follow-up action, but he never did.
At the 1998 AGM, the controversial accounts
of 1996-97 went undiscussed. The accounts for the following year too couldn't
be put before the House because they were incomplete and needed Mour's
signature. The secretary alleged that no one had got in touch with him
in his Guwahati office nor had anyone sought any documents about the accounts.
In a letter to Das Munshi, Mour accused the AIFF president and treasurer
A.R. Khaleel of "keeping me in the dark."
In 1999, following its decision to change broadcasters
from Star Sports to Doordarshan, the AIFF was taken to court by one-half
of its event management team, the International Management Group (IMG).
The AIFF had traded TV rights without IMG's approval and IMG took it to
court to claim both commission on the new deal and money paid up front
to AIFF as part of a 10-year contract. At the 1999 executive committee
meeting, it was decided that AIFF would settle out of court and give Rs
2.5 crore to IMG and Rs 1 crore to the other half of its management team,
LSM. Eventually LSM was given Rs 1.5 crore. Why LSM got an additional
Rs 50 lakhs "only the president can tell you", says Gupta, who
put his objection to the excess payment on record in a letter to Das Munshi
and Mour dated July 6, 2000.
Matters came to a head at the AGM of 2000. When
the issue of the Rs 2.5 crore irregularity came up, secretary Mour shocked
the House by declaring that he had signed the 1997-98 accounts "under
pressure" (a statement he later withdrew). IFA's Gupta also submitted
a five-page letter where he alleged-apart from the Rs 2.5-crore irregularity-"transfer
withdrawals" which included one of Rs 27 lakh to a person who, according
to the letter, "had no relationship with the functioning and/or management
of the AIFF". Das Munshi walked out in a huff in protest against
what he called the "vilification campaign" and all he will say
today is that "there is no financial irregularity and the matter
will be proved in court."
The AIFF's last financial bugbear was the Sahara
Millennium Cup. There was no bidding for the TV rights, and event managers
Studio 2100 were also given the job of handling gates sales, travel costs,
and related sponsorship deals. The firm now considers itself well and
truly burnt; estimates say Studio 2001 lost Rs 19 crore through this disastrous
enterprise. The AIFF did stand protected through its agreement with Studio
2100. But the loss of face and damage done to India's reputation were
severe.
For a country that never ranks among the top
100 nations in world football, this tussle has wrought deeper damage at
ground level. During Das Munshi's 12-year rule in the AIFF, the number
of domestic tournaments have gone down from 100 to only 24 a year. Even
big events-like the Federation Cup, the Nehru Cup and the Rajiv Gandhi
Gold Cup-have not been held in the recent past. Since 1997, the AIFF has
lost sponsors Kalyani Black label, Coca-Cola and Philips. In November
2000, dissidents from the AIFF broke away saying they would hold a "parallel"
(and more professional) National Football League of their own. They were
back with the AIFF a month later, but the rumblings in Indian football
have never quite died down.
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