Indian football: AIFF sacks Shaji Prabhakaran as secretary general for 'breach of trust'

The AllIndia Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday (Nov 8) announced it had sacked Shaji Prabhakaran from the post ofsecretary generalciting a breach of trust.

The governing body for football in India released a press statement informing about its decision, adding thatM Satyanarayan would take over Prabhakaran's post in the meantime.

“The All India Football Federation hereby announces that the services of Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran have been terminated due to breach of trust with immediate effect as of November 7, 2023,” read the statement.

“The AIFF Deputy Secretary, Mr M Satyanarayan, will take charge as Acting Secretary General of AIFF with immediate effect,” it added.

Notably, the decision was taken by AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey who saidPrabhakaran's work had led to 'resentment' among the bureaucratic setup.

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

Why has Prabhakaran been sacked?

Prabhakaran's sacking comes a little over a year after he was appointed to the role, replacing Kushal Das, last September.

Prabhakaran was reportedly aware of the impending sacking as he posted a cryptic message on X (formerly known as Twitter), a day before his sacking.

"We have to remain true to our game and when we have the position of power and influence then our responsibility is far higher to do our work with sincerity and dedication without any personal interests," Prabhakaran wrote.

"Never allow personal interests to dominate the mind and decisions. Let’s focus on our mission to transform football and make India proud. There can’t be a bigger satisfaction in life than to see India shining on the pitch on a bigger stage," he added.

Interestingly, when a user asked Prabhakaran why Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was not being used in Indian football leagues, he replied saying: "We don’t have funds."

According to media reports, one of the reasons forPrabhakaran's sacking was his public complaint of paucity of funds in the federation for the implementation of VAR.

It was underPrabhakaran's tenure that AIFF took the final stage of the once-prestigious Santosh Trophy to Saudi Arabia to fast-track its revival. Additionally, the men's nationalteam also broke into the top 100 FIFA rankings for the first time since 2018.

(With inputs from agencies)