* Earlier this month, top Indian Olympic Association (IOA) members, including president PT Usha, lost access to their official email IDs. The reason? Non-payment of dues to the service provider.
* In July, Arjuna Award winner rider Rajesh Pattu alleged that the Equestrian Federation of India spent close to Rs 50 lakh on videography. None of those videos, he wrote in a letter to equestrian and government officials, could be found anywhere.
* Weightlifting officials accused of not returning a loan amount of Rs 1.75 crore to the IOA; football administrators of using official credit cards to buy products for personal use; hockey officials accused of misuse of public funds — all charges that each federation has denied.
India’s Olympic sports federations have never been a model for good governance. Yet, even by their standards, the last few months and years have seen them hit new lows. So much so that the courts have had to constantly step in, keeping a close eye on the elections and placing ad-hoc committees to oversee day-to-day activities.
Six federations in the docks and counting
In the coming few days, at least six federations will appear in front of the Delhi High Court due to governance-related issues. The latest federation to find itself in the docks is the All India Tennis Association. Their case will be heard around the same time as wrestling, kabaddi, gymnastics, equestrian, and volleyball.
Accused of violating the National Sports Code, these cases come on the back of the recent judicial interventions in the running of the football, hockey, and table tennis federations. And in November, the Delhi High Court is likely to continue its hearing into the status of the Sports Code compliance by all federations.
“There’s a complete immunity given by the Government of India to every defaulting federation. I don’t know why they are doing this but that’s a pattern. In the court, they buy time, don’t respond in time… and the federations keep violating the Sports Code,” Senior Counsel and sports activist Rahul Mehra said.
The Olympic ambition and IOA mess
The court interventions and organisational instability come at a time when India is harbouring hopes of hosting the 2036 Olympics. However, that bid seems to be stalled at the moment due to the infighting within the IOA.
Legendary athlete and IOA chief PT Usha, who claims to have the backing of the government has seen her authority challenged by a rival faction that has many rebelling faces, including All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey.
The key point of contention has been the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer. Last January, the IOA’s nomination committee comprising Usha, boxing legend Mary Kom and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from India, Nita Ambani, had recommended to the Executive Board the appointment of Raghuram Iyer as the organisation’s first-ever CEO.
Iyer, who has served as the chief executive of IPL teams Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow Super Giants and Rising Pune Supergiant, and ISL club Mohun Bagan, was handed an annual package of approximately Rs 3 crore.
The CEO was to be the Olympic body’s first step towards professionalism — the IOA does not have a finance officer, a HR head, or a legal head. However, the executive committee members opposed the move because of the high costs involved.
On Thursday, with a senior IOC official attending the meeting online, the two warring factions once again collided on this issue, with Usha’s opponents making Chaubey the Acting CEO and deciding to start the process afresh. Usha, it is learnt, stormed out of the meeting.
An embarrassed Usha later wrote an email to IOC’s head of institutional relations and governance, Jerome Poivey, who was present virtually, apologising to him. “It is very disappointing that you had to endure today’s meeting which resulted in no outcome,” she wrote.
Unpaid officials, pending payments
The tussle over Iyer’s appointment — which Usha told the IOC has been under ‘unnecessary scrutiny’ — has led to a series of administrative crises.
Allegations and counter-allegations have flown thick and fast, so much so that if each was to be taken at face value then the majority of the elected members could be in violation of the Sports Code in one way or the other.
The tussle has led to outstanding dues that run into crores, according to an official.
For instance, when a hotel had to be booked for India’s golfers for the Paris Olympics — to ensure they stayed closer to the venue, which was far from the Village — the payment wasn’t immediately cleared. Instead, a third party chipped in with the advance and a full payment was made after repeated reminders, very close to the Olympics.
For the World Championship selection trials, the Wrestling Federation of India president Sanjay Singh banned those wrestlers who took part in the National Championship earlier this year which was supported by the government. (PTI)
Earlier this month, a service provider discontinued the official email IDs — including that of Usha’s — since their fees were not paid. The CEO, too, has not been paid his dues since he joined in January and according to those in the know, some of the IOA’s canteen staff too haven’t received their dues.
”All expenses have to be ratified by the executive council before payments are made. Since that has not happened — given that most meetings have ended in logjams over the CEO’s appointment — the payments got delayed or are pending,” an official admitted.
Wrestling: Trials at local akhara
Luckily for Indian sport, the IOA is effectively a post office that sends entries for multi-discipline Games. Their in-fighting hasn’t directly impacted athletes but that isn’t the case elsewhere.
In his social media post, former tennis player Somdev Devvarman lamented a ‘broken system’ that was ‘corrupt, insensitive and incompetent.’ He was speaking for tennis, but it could be true for many sports.
Take for example wrestling. For the World Championship selection trials, the Wrestling Federation of India president Sanjay Singh banned those wrestlers who took part in the National Championship earlier this year which was supported by the government.
— Somdev Devvarman (@SomdevD) September 24, 2024
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Since Sanjay, a close aide of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who got elected as the WFI president, the organisation has not received support and recognition from the government.
In this mess, the wrestlers are now bearing the brunt. Moreover, the selection trials will be held at a private akhara on the outskirts of Delhi that lacks basic amenities, according to coaches.
This, the coach added, was because the WFI — which gets crores in private sponsorship and international federation grants — said it could not ‘afford’ to pay a few lakhs for the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, where the trials are usually held.
Instead, according to a September 24 circular, the trials will be held at an akhara in Narela, New Delhi, on October 6 and 7.
Horsing around
One of the federations neck-deep in trouble is the one governing equestrian, a sport where India won a surprise gold medal at the last Asian Games.
Pattu, a three-time Asiad medallist, has accused the office-bearers of arbitrarily running the organisation. In an email to the government and the IOA dated August 31, he alleged that the funds meant for National Federation are being ‘misused by individuals in power’.
According to an email dated July 12, Pattu said the federation spent ‘Rs 1,43,77,152 on legal and professional expenses in 2022-23 and 2023-24′. For the current financial year, a ‘further Rs 97 lakh has been proposed as budget for legal and professional expense’, Pattu wrote.
He added that the EFI spent Rs 48,91,833 over the last two years on videos but did not find any such videos on the federation’s social media channels. The Delhi High Court court has instructed that an ad-hoc committee take charge of the EFI until fresh elections take place.
And just like that, Indian sport finds itself in a perennial state of crisis.