The Supreme Court today issued a series of directives that could meet FIFA's conditions to overturn the ban on the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
Prime among them are the election of a new administrative body by only state associations, and not eminent players; and the running of the administration for the foreseeable future by the current secretary. The order subsequently added that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) would cease to exist once the secretary-general takes over.
FIFA's problem was '36', National Sports Code had the solution
The court issued these orders on Monday after hearing various parties in the case. It also directed that the election, due on August 28, could be deferred by a week to adjust for the change in the electoral college.
The court said its orders had been issued "to facilitate the revocation of the the FIFA suspension and ensure that the prestige of hosting and participating is not affected." FIFA had imposed the ban on AIFF on August 15 due to "third party interference" and had subsequently revoked India's hosting rights for the U-17 Women's World Cup that's scheduled to begin next month.
The Supreme Court also directed that the AIFF's new Executive Committee shall consist of 23 members - 17 including treasurer will be elected by electoral college of 36 and six members to be drawn from eminent players.
Among FIFA's biggest concerns was the inclusion of 36 eminent ex-footballers in the electoral college for the [now postponed] August 28 elections, which was clear violation of FIFA's rule that only elected state associations and not nominated individuals can elect the central administrative body.
On August 19, seven names were nominated for the AIFF's president post: Bhaichung Bhutia, Kalyan Chaubey, Valanka Alemao, Shaji Prabhakaran, NA Haris, Ajit Banerjee, Manavendra Singh.
However, the nominations will require a re-look after Monday's directives as Bhutia's name was proposed by his former teammate Deepak Mondal and seconded by Madhu Kumari, with the latter part of the electoral college as an 'eminent' player.