The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday suspended its executive committee member Deepak Sharma until further notice for allegedly physically assaulting two women players in Goa, two days ago Previously, the association had not taken the same action. Two footballers from Himachal Pradesh’s Khad FC, who play in the second tier of the Indian Women’s Football League (IWL), claimed that Sharma, the club’s owner, broke into their club on the night of March 28 room and physically assaulted them. On Saturday, the AIFF asked Sharma not to participate in football-related activities until a panel investigation into the alleged incident against him is concluded. After a complaint lodged by the host association, Sharma was arrested by the Goa police and later released on bail.

“The AIFF Executive Committee has decided to suspend Mr. Deepak Sharma from any football-related activities until further notice,” the national federation said in a release.

This comes after the AIFF emergency committee comprising chairman Kalyan Chaubey, vice-chairman NA Haris and treasurer Kipa Ajay on Monday took stock of the complaints lodged by players against Sharma.

Following this, a meeting of AIFF member associations was held on Monday evening and “Sharma was called and listened to for a few minutes before he was advised to leave the meeting”.

According to sources, in the complaint sent to AIFF, two players said Sharma was drunk most of the time and they “feared for their lives”.

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur also asked the AIFF to take “swift” and “strong legal action” against the official.

The AIFF on Tuesday also dissolved the three-member committee set up on March 30 to investigate the incident and referred the matter to a disciplinary committee.

“AIFF is determined to promote women’s football in a safe and enabling environment and will take all necessary steps to ensure this. The case has now been referred to the disciplinary committee and will be dealt with on an urgent basis,” Chube said.

“The AIFF has taken all necessary steps to ensure the complainant’s safe return to her hometown and will continue to provide any support that may be needed.” He said that since he became president, the AIFF has been at the forefront of the development of women’s football.

“There are currently 27,030 registered female players in the country, with 15,293 registered between September 2022 and March 2024. The increase in the number of female football players across all age groups is one of the most encouraging trends,” said Jobe .

“This season, we have launched IWL 2 for the first time and have clear plans to introduce promotion and relegation in IWL from next season. India recently achieved their best ever result (runner-up) in the Turkish Women’s Cup and defeated their European opponents .”

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