Ruling faction of Mumbai District FA suffers setback as rival faction pushes for elections

The ‘ruling faction’ in the Mumbai District Football Association has suffered a setback after the Charity Commissioner’s office stayed a meeting of the executive committee that was called by general secretary Souter Vaz on June 6 at the association’s headquarters at St Xavier’s ground in Parel, central Mumbai.

The stay follows a miscellaneous application to the Charity Commissioner by four members of the managing committee belonging to a rival faction – assistant secretaries Everest Gonsalves and Xavier Faria besides James D’Costa and Shashank Shah – which claimed that the June 6 meeting is illegal and contrary to the bye laws and the constitution as the term of the office bearers had come to an end on March 6, 2013 and elections should have been called immediately thereafter.

The Charity Commissioner will hold another hearing tomorrow on June 14 about the various irregularities allegedly committed by the MDFA committee as it also has before it another application filed by former MDFA president Commander Kehar Singh (retd) under section 41-A of the Bombay Public Trust act.

MDFA secretary Vaz has claimed that what he has done is not illegal as according to the rules, the committee can continue to function for six months beyond their term of office. He and treasurer Uday Bannerjee had opposed the petitioners’ application through their counsel.

“Football will suffer if the tournaments cannot start in time as a result of this action and it will be difficult to complete the leagues,” he told Sportskeeda. He stated that he has every intention to call for the elections at the earliest but first the accounts have to be finalized, which takes it own time. He also revealed that the last elections were delayed by 11 months but nobody from the rival faction complained at that time.

On the other hand, Shah, who is appearing personally on behalf of the petitioners, countered that the major part of the matter has already been argued by the various counsels and that only the nitty gritties remain to be heard and it would take at the most a couple of hearings for the matter to be wrapped up. Ridiculing the argument that since a crime (delayed election) was committed earlier it can be repeated again, he said, “At that time, nobody opposed the move to continue with the functioning of the office bearers and so it was a unanimous decision. But this time, we are opposing the delay in conducting the elections and so we should be heeded. We should change for the better and adopt best practices.”

The petitioners claimed that they had sent the managing committee a requisition dated February 25, 2013 signed by 31 clubs (out of the minimum 25 required), calling for an special general body meeting as per clause 27 of the constitution within a period of one month and holding the elections at the earliest. However, their missive was completely ignored, an act which has come back to haunt the ruling faction.

Petitioner Gonsalves said that their intention is not to delay the leagues or any such motive. “Let them hold immediate elections. It will solve the problem and let the new committee call for a meeting and take whatever decisions they wish,” he stated.

The Asst Charity Commissioner M M Gavande, who heard the matter, seems to have agreed with the petitioners as he has observed in his order while allowing their misc application and postponing the executive committee meeting till the main application under Section 41-A is decided finally.

“I am of the opinion that, it would not be in the interest of the trust (MDFA) to allow the present executive council to hold such meetings when admittedly its tenure is already over,” he remarked. He also faulted the MDFA office bearers for their failure to file “change reports” about changes in the line-up of office bearers from the list filed immediately after the previous election, as required under the law. “This shows that there is no proper management in the trust. Under these circumstances it will not be proper to allow the executive council to hold such a meeting when there is objection from the members of executive council,” he observed.

The MDFA has about 350 registered clubs and conducts leagues for the 3^rd, 2^nd, 1^st, super and elite divisions besides a women’s league. The third division has some 150 teams and the second around 80 teams, making them a solid vote bank waiting to be tapped by ambitious officials. The intention was to start the 3^rd and 2^nd division leagues so they the ‘powers that be’ could familiarize themselves with team officials when they came in to give their entries and canvass for their votes, said a source.

It must be remembered that the previous ruling faction was so scared of elections that though they were called in 2009, no elections actually took place as everybody (about 27 persons) was declared elected unopposed after the contesting candidates were pruned down to the bare minimum by making some withdraw their candidatures or rejecting their nomination forms.

The MDFA should have kicked off its new season in April-May with the start of the lower leagues as it used to do in the past. The women’s league was started in May and completed in early June. The elite division (in which the I-League teams take part) was not held last season due to various constraints, one being that the Cooperage stadium renovation is not yet complete. It should hopefully be ready for action in the next few months.