Calcutta: The Indian Football Federation (IFA)’s governing body meeting Thursday to resolve the Bhaichung Bhutia-Mohun Bagan issue ended in a farce as the state association was only too happy to let the All-India Football Federation take over the case without them holding even a proper discussion on the issue.

IFA secretary Utpal Ganguli revealed at the beginning of the meeting, much to the surprise of those present, that Bhaichung had written to the AIFF a few days back seeking their intervention in the matter.

The AIFF, in reply, had written to the IFA on Wednesday saying they were referring the issue to the Players’ Status Committee (PSC) although they had also sought IFA’s opinion over the matter.

With the consent of 23 out of 37 members, Ganguli, on behalf of the governing body, then announced that IFA would respect AIFF’s decision.

What was bewildering was Bhaichung’s decision to approach the AIFF when the IFA had already declared the date for a meeting?

Reacting to the whole episode, Ganguli said: “Bhaichung had written to us saying he had faith in the IFA. May be he wanted to quickly take the last step without taking the earlier ones.”

AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta, who was present at the meeting, said: “This is quite strange as neither Bhaichung nor the AIFF bothered to take the state association into confidence before arriving at this decision. The (AIFF) general secretary, Alberto Colaco has taken this decision… But I will raise this matter with the AIFF as this clearly belittles the state bodies.”

Bagan’s legal counsel, Gitanath Ganguly questioned: “It’s ridiculous… Why did the IFA convene the meeting at all if nothing was to be discussed? Why were we called?”

The governing body meeting, which was supposed to provide answers instead has ended up giving rise to a cloud of questions.

When an important part of the case is whether Bagan’s suspension of Bhaichung stands, one doubts whether the PSC is the right place for a solution, because, technically, this matter doesn’t fall under its jurisdiction. In such a scenario, the ball may well be back in the IFA court.

This fiasco has also undermined the IFA’s status as an authority as players may now follow the precedent set by Bhaichung and bypass the state body in such cases and approach the AIFF directly.