The suspended Indian Olympic Association elected a "new set of officials on Sunday hoping to overturn an Olympic ban on the world's second most populous nation," according to Amlan Chakraborty of REUTERS. IOA President N. Ramachandran said after the election, "To the best of our knowledge, the IOC observer team is completely satisfied with the conduct and the fairness of the election. The house has urged them to take their report back to the IOC executive board and try and make sure the athletes walk beneath the Indian tri-color at the earliest." Ramachandran, also the president of the World Squash Federation, whose brother N. Srinivasan heads the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and Kho Kho Federation President Rajeev Mehta, the "new secretary general of the body, were both elected unopposed" (REUTERS, 2/9). The ANI reported an IOC member and "observer of the polls, Robin Mitchell, said he is satisfied with the election results of the IOA." Mitchell: "We have been happy with what has happened as president Ramachandran has expressed. We will be leaving back to Sochi tonight, with Winter Games and IOC executive meeting, and pass on our report on today's proceeding" (ANI, 2/9). The PTI reported "when asked about any time frame," Mitchell said, "The IOC Executive Board is meeting before the closing ceremony of Sochi Winter Olympics and hopefully the EB will decide to revoke India's suspension in that meeting. We want Indian athletes to take part in the closing ceremony with the national flag" (PTI, 2/9).
AIFF BARRED: IANS reported the All India Football Federation was on Sunday "prohibited from participating" in the IOA's election for "failure to present proper documents for the electoral process." AIFF Treasurer Hardev Jadeja "came to attend Sunday's meeting." The IOA, though, "contended that the letter sent to the Olympic body by AIFF did not have the signature of either its president or general secretary and therefore it didn't allow the AIFF representatives to attend the meet" (IANS, 2/9).
