VFI Suspends 10 Members For Participating In An Unconstitutional Meeting

Volleyball federation of India suspends  10 constitutional members. Image Source: Xtra Time
Volleyball federation of India suspends 10 constitutional members. Image Source: Xtra Time

New Delhi: In a historic move to cleanse the organization, The President of Volleyball Federation of India (VFI), Mr. Chaudhary Avdhesh Kumar has used his constitutional powers to suspend ten members of the VFI including CEO Mr. K Murugan, EVP Mr. Rajkumar and Treasurer Ranjit Roy Chaudhary along with 7 other state unit affiliate members. These members are accused of attending an invalid core committee meeting that was called by Executive Vice President Mr. Rajkumar on 22nd February 2016.

The said meeting, which was held at the Radisson Blu hotel in New Delhi, was declared unconstitutional, as it was not called by The Secretary General or by The President or by any VFI member who had given prior notice for such a meeting in accordance with the constitution of VFI. Further, The President had also dissolved the core committee of the VFI on 20th February 2016, and disallowed any such meeting.

Since a few VFI officials and state representatives still went ahead to meet in Delhi and later released some information regarding Indian Volleyball League, without the permission of The President or the Executive Committee, their actions were found to be unconstitutional and against the spirit of India volleyball at large. All the decisions taken in the meeting are also declared null and void.

The suspended members are also accused of attempting to sabotage the IV League logo release ceremony that was done by The President in the presence of other VFI officials and states representatives on 24th February 2016 at The Lalit hotel in New Delhi.

To give the suspended members a fair chance, The President has constituted a 5-member “Disciplinary Committee” and called an Emergent Executive Committee meeting to be held in Nagpur on 3rdof March. Suspended members are expected to file in their written replies to the ‘disciplinary committee’ by the 2nd of March. The disciplinary committee will then submit a report to the Emergent Executive Committee with the recommendations.

Interestingly Chaudhary Avadhesh Kumar followed the due procedure laid out in the VFI constitution to approve the proposal from a reputed sports marketing firm before launching the three IV Leagues logos. The sports marketing firm gave a presentation to The President in the presence of CEO, EVP, and Secretary General in a meeting held in Bengaluru on 2nd of January. VFI then assessed the proposal for a few weeks and then gave it a green signal keeping in mind the interest of the federation and the players in consideration.

Commenting on the development, Chaudhary Avadhesh Kumar has said; “I have always worked according to the constitution of VFI. The primary objective of my actions as The President is to uplift the status of volleyball in India, protect interest of current and ex-players, officials, state units. In the last 3 years the status of Indian Volleyball has improved and the governance of the federation has become more player centric. Apparently, a section of the federation does not like this transparent shift and hence they want to create confusion. I am very clear that if anybody comes in the way to improve the financial status of players, state units and federation, a very strong action as per the constitution shall be taken against him/her.”

The President added that although he has given the suspended members a fair chance to dispose off in front of the Disciplinary Committee, but any activity to sabotage the integrity of the Federation will not be tolerated in the future as well.