AIFF Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran Sacked Due To 'Trust Deficit'

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has sacked its secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran due to “trust deficit”, a top official said on Wednesday.

AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey served the termination letter on Tuesday to Prabhakaran, who got the high-profile job on September 3 in 2022.

“There was a lot of resentment about his functioning among the members of the AIFF which forced us to terminate his contract,” the AIFF chief was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

“The AIFF president has issued the termination letter to Prabhakaran. He is no longer the AIFF Secretary General,” AIFF vice-president NA Haris told PTI.

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“Deputy secretary general Satyanarayan M will discharge his duties as acting secretary general,” he added.

Haris said there has been a “trust deficit” between Chaubey and Prabhakaran and even the AIFF executive committee members are not happy with the way the sacked secretary general worked.

According to News9, Prabhakaran wrote a letter to the executive committee members, in which he said that: “As per AIFF Constitution, it is the Executive Committee that can only dismiss or terminate the General Secretary. Thus, this termination has no constitutional validity and approval of the Executive Committee.”

Prabhakaran was appointed at the first executive Committee meeting of the new dispensation which took charge after the elections on September 2.

He was earlier serving as Football Delhi president. He resigned from that post and took charge as AIFF secretary general on September 6, 2022.

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A meeting of the executive committee has been called here on Thursday and the members are expected to be officially apprised of the development, besides discussing other matters.

Haris said there is no need for the AIFF executive committee to ratify the decision of the president.

“The post of the secretary general is a paid post and he was not appointed by the executive committee. The president has the power to appoint and remove the secretary general. So the president issued the termination letter,” said Haris.

A meeting of the executive committee has been called here on Thursday and the members are expected to be officially apprised of the development, besides discussing other matters.