Fifa, world football’s governing body, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), in a joint letter to the All India Football Federation, have said that the general body of the federation is the supreme body and should have the power to amend the constitution. The member-associations had raised concerns that the Supreme Court, in its verdict, may ask for any future amendments to the AIFF statutes to be validated again by the courts.

“In this regard, we are of the opinion that the AIFF Congress, as the supreme and legislative body of AIFF, should remain entitled in future to amend the AIFF Statutes without the need for the Courts to validate the relevant changes,” the letter to AIFF acting secretary Sunando Dhar said.

“In this context, and for the sake of good order, we would like to stress that any future changes to the AIFF Statutes should however be fully in line with the requirements and principles of both FIFA and the AFC, in addition to the national legal framework in place.” The letter, signed by Kenny Jean-Marie, chief member associations officer of Fifa and Vahid Kardany, AFC’s deputy general secretary, has been accessed by The Telegraph.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators had sent the draft constitution to Fifa on July 13 and submitted it to the apex court two days later. On July 21 the apex court adjourned further hearing in the case till Thursday asking all stakeholders who have objections to the draft constitution to prepare a brief note of their submissions by Monday.

The letter also stated that AIFF should have 25 per cent eminent player representation in its executive committee as co-opted members instead of the 50 per cent stipulated. “As per the draft statutes shared with us, there will be an additional 35 Eminent Players in the AIFF Congress from the exiting 35 Member Associations. Although we agree that the players’ voice needs to be heard, we are also of the view that the importance of the existing members of the AIFF should not be undermined,” it said in the letter. “To bring in 50 percent of the members in the Congress structure which equals the current membership structure is not a prudent idea, and the AIFF should seek to be more diverse in future.

“However, we understand the requirements of the Sports Code of India and recommend AIFF to bring in a presence of above 25 percent of the Eminent Players in the AIFF Executive Committee as Co-opted Members.”

The draft also says that a state association office-bearer, who becomes an AIFF executive member, shall automatically relinquish the state body post and vice-versa. However, Fifa-AFC said: “Such a proposal would make it difficult for the Members to get re-elected again at the respective Member Associations in the event that they cannot serve their full term in the Executive Committee of AIFF for any reason.” If the Supreme Court decides on the new constitution on Thursday, the state associations may meet on Saturday.