SHILLONG, Aug 21: In what can be described as a major blow for Meghalaya football, representative of the Meghalaya Football Association (MFA) and Shillong Sports Association (SSA) president Eugeneson Lyngdoh, has been disqualified from running for a place in the yet-to-be-formed All India Football Federation’s Executive Committee due to a technicality, as informed by the election’s Returning Officer, on Sunday.
Nominations of candidates interested in running for president, treasurer and executive committee members were filed on August 19, with Sunday set as the day for scrutiny of the nominations.
However, Lyngdoh can still vote in the election scheduled for August 28 but is unable to contest for a position himself.
The Returning Officer noted that Lyngdoh’s nomination had been seconded by Arif Ali of the Uttarakhand State Football Association. However, Ali had also seconded the nomination of Menla Ethenpa of Sikkim. The problem with this is that, according to Article 5.5 of the AIFF’s draft constitution, “no person shall be eligible to nominate more than one candidate for the same post, either as proposer of seconder”.
In such an instance, only the nomination that was received first shall be considered to be valid and, in this case, it was Ethenpa’s first and Lyngdoh’s second, therefore the Meghalaya legend was disqualified.
