The meeting of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Disciplinary Committee on February 23, 2023, has resulted in suspension of Friends Union Club Tripura player Ayuk Jamatia for age fraud.
The offence is punishable under Article 62 of the AIFF Disciplinary Code, which defines forgery and falsification. As per the text in the Article, the AIFF may decide to suspend a person for at least six months and impose a fine on top of the suspension if the person concerned is a player.
The offence, in this case, came out of the concerned player holding two IDs in the Centralised Registration System with distinct birth dates and a shocking age gap of eight years between the two IDs. The player himself has admitted to having submitted two IDs with distinct dates of birth to the AIFF whilst responding to a show cause notice.
Efforts to secure the presence of the player before the Committee failed as the player remained unresponsive to the efforts made by the Committee to reach him both directly and through his club.
Also read: Age fraud in Indian football — A plague long denied
Invoking Article 62 of the Code, the Committee has now suspended the player for a period of four years from the date of the order and imposed a fine of ₹2,50,000. However, the Code allows players to file an appeal against the initial order delivered by the Committee under Article 117 of the Code.
Furthermore, the player’s registration was directed to be cancelled in the Centralised Registration System.