Shocked at the high level of political interference in AIFF elections, says Bhaichung Bhutia
India Today
Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia on Saturday said he was shocked at the "high level" of political interference in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elections, which didn't pan out as he would have liked.
Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia said he was shocked at the "high level" of political interference in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) elections. Notably, Bhutia lost to BJP leader and former goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey in the election for the president's post.
The 45-year-old Bhutia said the AIFF elections should have been fought without any "political interference", and purely on football matters.
"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 presidential election and I wanted to contribute with sincerity," Bhutia was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
"If they (his opponents) were so confident of victory, why a powerful union minister have to come at the hotel (where the voters were staying) at 9pm (on Thursday) and stay there till 2am in the morning of election day (on Friday) and take all of them to a particular floor of the hotel," he said.
"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 second, but I could not reach him on the phone.
"The political interference was a shocking thing to me and it was very unfortunate and a sad thing for Indian football."
