‘Sad for Indian football’- Bhaichung Bhutia shocked by the level of political interference in AIFF elections

Former Indian football team skipper Bhaichung Bhutia was recently bested by BJP leader and former Indian goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey after a hard-fought battle for the coveted mantle of AIFF President.

Bhutia, who has himself dabbled in politics as he contested in Lok Sabha and state assembly elections on a ticket from TMC in 2014 and 2016, asserted that the level of political interference in the AIFF elections was unacceptable. 

ALSO READ: When Ghanaian witch doctor claimed he caused Cristiano Ronaldo’s knee injury ahead of FIFA World Cup 2014

“I was shocked because I personally did not expect that the political interference (in AIFF elections) would be of such a high level. I thought it’s a football president election and I wanted to contribute with sincerity,” said Bhutia while in conversation with PTI. 

He wondered why a union minister had come to the venue where all the voters were housed and interacted with them by cordoning off an entire floor for the duration of their interaction. 

Although Bhutia refused to name the union minister in question, Rajasthan state association president Manvendra Singh, who had backed his candidacy in the election, alleged that it was the Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju.

The fact that Rijiju was on the same premises as the voters was later confirmed by Kalyan Chaubey himself. However, he went on to dismiss Singh’s claims as a ‘complete lie’.

ALSO READ: Rohit, Dravid pre-planned rotation of players, workload management keeping T20 WC 2022 in mind – Report

“Out of the 34 members of the electoral college, 33 (except Gopalakrishna Kosaraju) were taken to a floor of the hotel and access was denied to the whole floor. I could not contact any of the voters, the network was down.

“I tried calling the secretary of Rajasthan association, who is a voter and whose president (Manvendra Singh) was my seconder, but I could not reach him on phone. The political interference was a shocking thing to me and it was very unfortunate and a sad thing for Indian football.”