'Darkest hour of Indian Football finally over,' says AIFF GS Sunando Dhar after FIFA lifts ban

The world governing body decided to revoke the suspension on August 25th.

Just over a week after handing Indian football a suspension, FIFA lifted the ban on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on August 25th after the Supreme Court of India repealed the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which it had appointed in May to look after the daily affairs of the AIFF, and handed the management of the body to the federation. The AIFF acting general secretary Sunando Dhar welcomed the decision and said "The darkest hour of Indian Football is finally over."

In a statement late on Friday night, FIFA announced that it had finally lifted the suspension from AIFF. "The Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension that was imposed on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) due to undue third-party influence," said the world governing body in its statement.

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"The decision was taken after FIFA received confirmation that the mandate of the committee of administrators that was set up to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been terminated and that the AIFF administration had regained full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs. FIFA and the AFC will continue to monitor the situation and will support the AIFF in organising its elections in a timely manner.

"As a consequence, the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 scheduled to take place on 11-30 October 2022 will be held in India as planned.

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AIFF acting General Secretary Sunando Dhar said: “The darkest hour of Indian Football is finally over. The suspension that was slapped on midnight of August 15 on the AIFF, has been lifted by FIFA. We sincerely thank FIFA and AFC, especially the AFC General Secretary Datuk Seri Windsor John for guiding us in such difficult times.

"We also take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and the Hon'ble Sports Minister Shri Anurag Thakur for solidly standing by us at this crucial juncture.”

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