Mumbai: Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwala on Wednesday said the IOC's suspension of the IOA is a "short-term" problem which will be resolved in a couple of months.
"This is a short-term problem. I think the less we debate on this issue the better it is. This is a short-term problem which will be sorted out soon. It will be done in a couple of months. There is no problem," Sumariwala said.
The IOA was slapped with a suspension by the IOC for not adhering to the Olympic Charter during its elections held earlier this month. The IOC decided to ban India as the IOA had failed to comply with the Olympic Charter and also allowed a tainted official to contest the elections for a top post.
In its suspension letter to the IOA, the IOC made it clear that the national Olympic body would remain suspended until it was in a position to satisfy all the conditions set out in the Olympic Charter. On the AFI's election issue, Sumariwala said, "We were always recognised by the international federation and our elections were held in April. There is no issue at all. The issues were created by interested parties to disturb our athletes."
The Sports Ministry had quashed the election of the president, secretary and treasurer of the AFI earlier this month, and had asked the NSF to hold fresh polls within 60 days, or before February 28, whichever is earlier.
The ministry has also directed the AFI to amend its constitution, failing which it will withdraw the recognition.
Earlier this month, the ministry had termed the April elections to the three key posts of AFI invalid as they were conducted in violation of the Sports Code. Sumariwala of Maharashtra was elected the president while CV Valson of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka's Satyanarayan were elected secretary and treasurer, respectively. However, the international body IAAF had on Tuesday said that it supported the election of the AFI conducted in April.
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