I-League clubs’ remain barred as AIFF Appeal Committee rejects licensing appeals

As discussed in my previous blog , the AIFF Club Licencing Comittee barred four I- League teams at the end of May 2014 ³ for their failures to comply with the AIFF Licensing Regulations ⁴ . Pursuant to Section D, Article 5.3 of the AIFF Licensing Regulations, the four barred clubs were entitled to appeal the first instance decision of the Club Licensing Committee to the Club Licensing Appeals Body. The operation, duties and powers of the Club Licensing Appeals Body can be found at Article 3.13 of the AIFF Licensing Regulations.

 

All four of the barred clubs exercised their right to appeal, and the appeal hearing took place on June 3, 2014. The Club Licensing Appeals Body was constituted of a three member panel (led by NK Sud - retired Justice Punjab and Haryana high court)⁵. After hearing the appeals, the Appeals Bo decided in each case to reject the appeals and uphold the first instance decision not to grant the four teams licenses for the upcoming season on the basis that the teams had not sufficiently demonstrated that they had fulfilled many of the 42 A-criteria relating to “sporting, personnel & administrative, financial, legal and infrastructure”.