Panaji: The newly-elected committee of the Daman and Diu Football Association has offered All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Kalyan Chaubey a lifeline by submitting a new list of delegates for next month’s all-important general body meeting and elections.Outgoing Daman FA president Amit Khemani had named general secretary Walter Pereira and technical director Altamash Shaikh as the two delegates. The list was emailed to AIFF electoral officer Rajeev Sharma before the deadline of Nov 13.However, after Pereira, a former Mumbai-based referee and match commissioner, was elected unopposed as president on Saturday, Daman sent a new list to AIFF.“The new list, sent after the deadline, has the names of Pereira and Kalyan Chaubey,” a senior official told TOI. “The electoral officer has not taken a decision on the delegates from Daman since elections were pending until the cut-off date. A decision is likely to be taken later, in accordance with the AIFF constitution.”According to sources, elections in Daman have also come under scrutiny for not adhering to the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, largely due to absence of a mandatory Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) list and the size of its executive committee.Newly-elected president Pereira did not respond to calls and messages.Sharma, on Sunday, cleared the delegate list from 29 states while the fate of states where elections are held beyond the deadline, like Daman, Pondicherry FA, Uttarakhand State FA, Jammu & Kashmir FA, and Indian Football Association (West Bengal), hangs in the balance.According to the official delegate list, former AIFF president Praful Patel will represent WIFA at the general body and is eligible to contest elections.According to Sharma, “any intimation received after this deadline (of Sept 13), and any change in the names after it, shall be permitted only with the approval of the electoral officer, in accordance with Article 4.2 of Schedule III of the Constitution.”
