'Kalyan Chaubey Will Not Remain AIFF President, Won't Get BJP Ticket For LS Polls Either'

All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Kalyan Chaubey has been accused of letting down Indian football and completely mismanaging the administration by former president of the Andhra Pradesh Football Association Gopalakrishna Kosaraju.

"Kalyan Chaubey has failed to meet the challenges and, along with that, has misused his post.

AIFF is in a complete mess. Since the new management took over, there has been a huge blunder," Kosaraju told Sports Now.

Kosaraju's allegations were previously backed by AIFF's principal legal advisor, Nilanjan Bhattacharjee, who also made serious "corruption charges" against Chaubey. However, the AIFF President dismissed all of them as baseless allegations.

But fresh elections could be on the cards, with the Supreme Court of India taking note of corruption allegations in a hearing last week.

"See, people need to understand that it is an interim body, and once a call for elections is made, they will have to step down. I can confidently say that Kalyan Chaubey won't remain as AIFF President, and he won't receive a BJP ticket either for LS Polls. There are too many charges of malpractice against him," said Kosaraju, who had also written a letter to the PMO, citing irregularities in AIFF ( a copy of which is in possession with Sports Now )

Last week, CJI Chandrachud had also reportedly said that once the AIFF constitution is finalised, fresh elections will be held to elect office bearers, and the interim elected body will step down.

Meanwhile, there was further bad news for Indian football fans after the Blue Tigers succumbed to a shock 1-2 defeat at the hands of Afghanistan. This gave India a serious jolt in its quest for a place in the third round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 Preliminary Joint Qualifiers.

Skipper Sunil Chhetri, playing his 150th International, kept his date with history by giving the Blue Tigers the lead off a penalty kick in the 38th minute in front of jam-packed stands at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati. But the joy was shortlived after Rahmat Akbari's shot deflected off an Indian defender to find its way past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the 70th minute for the equaliser. Then Sharif Mukhammad dealt the deathly blow by converting a penalty in the 88th minute.