Who is this ‘agent’ inside AIFF?

Last year, I got an anonymous mail from someone who wanted to expose a big racket involving Indian football and that too right inside its headquarter at Football House. Almost a year later, the rumour have resurfaced again following the Panasonic deal with AIFF. There are strong rumours that one of the top AIFF officials has operated as a ‘shadow’ agent on behalf of Panasonic and in the process made good money. Last year, when I broke the news about this ‘shadow’ agent to AIFF’s all-powerful and power-centric secretary Alberto Colaco, he looked the other way.

How can a person who is engaged in bringing money to football federation, can actually engage in personal business ventures? Why they use their AIFF profile to build network for their future business expansion? Colaco, once again, looked the other way and smartly evaded the question. Actually, he didn’t want to answer because he himself has been partly responsible due to his faulty recruitment policies. No matter how much you make him understand, Colaco gives a damn.

In 2006, Colaco had appointed Satyajit Sadanandan. Football was not his qualification. He is an IIM Grad. Still he made it to the Football House because Colaco was hopeful that he would be an asset for Indian football as he will create marketing strategy for Indian football which was looking for financial support. After two years, Satyajit was promoting football but for his own company.

Colaco didn’t specify why he had recruited Satyajit, who didn’t have any knowledge about Indian soccer. Be its history or about the tournaments (surprisingly, he was made Director, Projects). Within two years, Satyajit ditched the federation and got engaged with his own business venture — sports marketing company based somewhere in Bangalore. Sounds interesting, isn’t it?

It was alleged that he even got hold of an influential FIFA official who was then looking after the south-Asian programme which included India as well. After the FIFA official quit his post, he found an ally in Satyajit, who was his India partner in a company which specialised in football consultancy. Some says that Satyajit and this AIFF official (‘shadow’ agent) is well connected and they work on a profil-sharing basis.

But who is this AIFF official who took a huge cut as the ‘shadow’ agent in the Rs 5 crore Panasonic deal? Why he gets this sort of leverage in AIFF? Is it morally correct to use AIFF contacts to reap personal benefits?