Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) The selection committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) failed to shortlist five candidates each for the post of general secretary and the chief executive of the I-league after an eight-hour brain storming session Wednesday.
A member of the four-man selection committee, set up by AIFF president Praful Patel, told IANS that the final procedure would be completed by Thursday. Vice-presidents Subrata Dutta, Ankur Dutta, A.R. Khaleel and treasurer Hardev Jadeja were handpicked by Patel from the executive committee to prune the lists to five each.

The short-list was supposed to be completed by Wednesday but the committee members are taking no chances with the 40 odd applicants for the two posts.

“The screening process is still going on and we will finish it by Thursday afternoon and the candidates will be called for interview next month,” a committee member told IANS on condition of anonymity.

But a couple of members of the committee were pleasantly surprised with the presence of AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco in the meeting.

“God knows why he was there. As an ex-officio he might have felt it was his responsibility to go through the CVs (curriculum vitae),” a selection committee member remarked.

The member also said the short-list would not spring much surprises.

In such a case, Olympian Syed Shahid (S.S.) Hakeem, Goa Football Association (GFA) secretary Savio Messias and the youthful, enthusiastic Shaji Prabhakaran, who till recently served as AIFF development officer, are still in the race for general-secretary’s post.

Former Mahindra coach and player Harish Rao and AIFF’s director of competitions Anil Kamath, who has been in charge of the national league for the last 13 years, along with Hakeem are still in contention for the I-League chief executive’s post.