Madras High Court worried over conflicts among sports associations having detrimental effect on young players

The Centre has been promoting the ‘Khelo India’ movement to encourage sports in a big way but unfortunately most sports associations in the country are involved in power struggle which not only affects organisational stability but also has detrimental effects on young sportspersons, the Madras High Court has lamented.

Dealing with a case related to Tamil Nadu Football Association, third Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq wrote that constant conflict in sports bodies “would create a sense of lack of clarity in the minds of the young sports persons and also would lower their morale and defeat their spirit.”

The judges went on to write: “A sportsperson should not be defeated by discriminating him/her from participating in the arena of sports, but the defeat should be in the real field, after allowing all those, who have the potential to participate in the event so that they can contribute with their spirit, body, mind and soul ably.”

Authoring the verdict for the Bench, Justice Mahadevan also said: “Often participation and completion itself is seen as an inner victory. It is the process, one undertakes to compete in sport that alleviates the inner spirit, facilitating change in one’s perspective towards life and fellow human beings.”

The judges appointed an administrative committee chaired by the High Court’s retired judge A.K. Rajan and comprising of two sportsmen — R. Basheer Ahmed and Harjinder Singh and two lawyers — Stalin Abhimanyu and Kanimozhi Mathi for administering the Tamil Nadu Football Association until the election of office-bearers.

The committee was directed to convene a meeting of all district-level associations and address their grievances before conducting elections to the State body. It was also entrusted with the responsibility of conducting elections for the district bodies too after finalising the voters’ list.

The Bench also gave the committee the authority to run the day-to-day affairs of the association by conducting matches and selecting players through a free and fair process.