Football News: Countries banned by FIFA due to third-party influences like India

In the latest football news, FIFA has recently banned AIFF, All India Football Federation, over third-party interference. FIFA follows a strict policy when it comes to third parties interfering with football. This is, however, not the first when a country got banned by the governing body. Here is the list of countries banned by FIFA due to third-party influences like India.

Iraq (2008)

Iraq was banned ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifier of 2010 against Australia. This happened after the Iraq government dissolved their National Olympic Committee and national sports federations. The ban was, however, lifted in May 2008.

Nigeria (2014)

Nigeria experienced a similar crisis in 2014 following a poor performance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) decided to sack the executive committee and a Nigerian court summoned a civil servant to run the Federation. After this , FIFA immediately suspended the NFF on July 9, 2014 The ban was lifted in July 2014.

Guatemala (2016)

Guatemala was banned in October 2016. The decision was taken after the Directors of the Football Federation refused to recognise the committee saying it is against the country's laws. The ban was finally lifted in 2018.

​Kuwait and Indonesia (2015)

Kuwait and Indonesia were banned by FIFA in 2015. The action was taken after FIFA found out that Kuwait's administration was interfering with the work of football associations present in the country. However, Indonesia was banned after its government decided to abolish the Football Association in 2015. The country then replaced it with its own football committee.

​Pakistan (2017 and 2021)

FIFA banned the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on two occasions. In October 2017, FIFA suspended the PFF for "undue third-party interference", which was lifted the next year. But the election that followed was not recognised by FIFA.

Ashfaq Hussain Shah was elected as President of the PFF and he briefly threw the normalisation committee out of PFF headquarters – a body imposed by FIFA to ensure its rules were being followed judiciously

This ultimately led to the ban due to the 'hostile takeover' – a serious violation of its statutes.

Kenya (2022)

In football news, February 2022, FIFA suspended the Football Kenya Federation (KFK) because of government intervention in the body's operation, citing 'third-party interference' as a violation of its statutes.

Kenya's Sports ministry disbanded the KFK after allegations of misappropriation of funds and a caretaker committee was appointed in November 2021 – something that went against the rulebook of football's apex body.

FIFA demanded the reinstatement of the KFK with the old officials with the assurance that the corruption allegations would be looked into. But the government's failure to comply with the same saw the country get the ban.

Zimbabwe (2022)

Zimbabwe was banned after its government-run Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) refused to relinquish control of the Zimbabwe Football Association and reinstate the federation's leadership.

ZIFA officials were removed from office in November on allegations of corruption.

SRC had intervened in ZIFA's operation after allegations of sexual harassment of female referees by technical staff and allegations of fraud within the football body.

The SRC was initially given a deadline of January 3 by Fifa to relinquish control of football back to ZIFA, which was not met.

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