Indian football has been red carded. Earlier this week, Fifa, the sport’s global governing body, suspended the All India Football Federation, which runs football in this country, citing “undue influence from third parties” in the functioning of the organisation.The immediate implications are serious enough: the suspension means that Indian football has been booted out of the international arena for the time being. The national teams of all age groups can no longer compete against other countries, bilaterally or in larger tournaments. Indian players cannot represent foreign clubs or even participate in the international transfer market while the suspension is in force. India has also lost the right to host the Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in October. For India’s football players, these setbacks represent potentially career-defining blows. Professional sportspersons have a short span of years during which they are at their peak. Many among them now risk losing valuable time. The suspension will also disrupt the feeder system of younger age-group football that is tested most when players perform against peers from other nations. At a time when women’s football is truly taking off globally, the failure to host the Under-17 World Cup would also be a lost opportunity.

But the suspension also raises more fundamental questions about the direction of Indian football and its administration in the country while highlighting just how difficult it is to reform sports in a nation where entrenched interests have run the show for decades. At the heart of the current crisis is the domestic turf war over football, which culminated with the Supreme Court removing the former Union aviation minister, Praful Patel, from the head of the AIFF in May. Mr Patel had refused to vacate office even though his term was legally over. The Supreme Court, while ordering him out, appointed a Committee of Administrators to run the football body, just as it had tasked a similar panel of court-appointed experts to overhaul the governance of Indian cricket some years ago. Mr Patel, a former Fifa member, enjoys clout within the global football administrative set-up. Fifa, in turn, also has rules demanding that its member bodies maintain their independence from outside influence.The CoA’s proposed new constitution for the AIFF, which included a significant shake-up of the body’s administrative set-up with more former players as decision makers,served as the breaking point for Fifa. For India’s sports community,the suspension poses a dilemma.On the one hand, there is the feudal edifice marked by nepotism that has long helmed football and other sports in India and is clearly incapable of delivering results. On the other hand, allowing the Supreme Court or governments to run sports bodies is a slippery slope too. There is no easy answer but a middle ground must be found. Careers are at stake — as is the very future of the beautiful game in India.