IKF chief says ban on Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India will be lifted

The IKF had banned the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) in July last year after the ‘elected body’ was not allowed to take charge

New Delhi: International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) president Vinod Kumar Tiwari told PTI that the ban would be lifted after an executive council meeting scheduled next month.

The IKF had banned the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) in July last year after the ‘elected body’ was not allowed to take charge.

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“The court-appointed administrator has handed over the charge to the AKFI office bearers who were elected in December 2023. The AKFI office bearers have started functioning from the AKFI office at JLN Stadium,” Tiwari said in an interview.

“So, the ban on AKFI will be lifted. We will have our executive board meeting (of the IKF) next month and the ban will be officially lifted.” In a February 6 order, the Supreme Court had asked Justice (Retd.) S P Garg, the AKFI administrator, to hand over control of the federation to the office bearers elected in December 2023.

The SC division bench had, however, clarified that it hadn’t recognised the elected body of the federation yet, but was passing the order to allow participation of Indian players in the senior Asian Kabaddi Championship-2025 scheduled in Iran from February 20 to 25.

The top court passed the order after two national Kabaddi players — Priyanka and Pooja — sought direction to AKFI for sending them to the Asian Kabaddi Championship in Iran.