In a shocking development, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday sacked its general secretary Shaji Prabhakaran. According to reports, AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey gave the final approval to this decision in the AIFF Executive Committee meeting held at the AIFF Headquarters on Wednesday.
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The new committee is barely a year old. Meanwhile, Shaji Prabhakaran, who was appointed as Secretary General, was removed. It was decided three days ago that the Secretary General will be dismissed in the meeting of the Federation on Thursday. But to everyone's surprise, Shaji Prabhakaran was dismissed from the post of General Secretary with a letter on the same day.
It has been heard for quite some time that many members of the Executive Committee, including President Kalyan Chaubey, are no longer getting along. An advisory committee headed by NA Haris was formed a few days ago to curtail the powers of the Secretary General. Then during the SAFF Cup in Bengaluru, M. Satyanarayan of the Karnataka Association was appointed as Deputy General Secretary, giving Shaji an indication of who the federation bosses were thinking of as his replacement.
Many explained that the reason for taking such a decision before the meeting of the executive committee is that since Shaji Prabhakaran understood that he might be fired in Thursday's meeting. He was making his own way to counter-speak at the meeting. But the federation officials did not give Shaji the chance to attend Thursday's meeting by dismissing him on the same day. As a result, Shaji Prabhakaran was dismissed from the post of Secretary General of the Federation after only one year and two months.
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"I must say that there must be some conspiracy behind this decision, which I am not able to understand. I must say, this is a totally irresponsible decision at a time when AIFF governance matter is still under discussion and scrutiny across. I have worked with 100% honesty, and I have not made any decision that was bad for football in India, and it is the fact that I didn't interfere in the decision of the Judicial Bodies for which I was pressurized."
Shaji Prabhakaran
Meanwhile, until a new secretary is appointed from outside, M. Satyanarayan, the deputy general secretary of the federation, will handle the duties of secretary general from now on.
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