Why Did Sports Ministry Suspend Wrestling Federation of India?

You might have read about the recent suspension of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) by the Sports Ministry of India. But it isn’t a complete termination but a temporary suspension.

On December 21, Sanjay Singh was elected as the President of WFI. However, just a few days later, on December 24, the Sports Ministry suspended the WFI. This decision was taken because the newly formed Sanjay Singh-led WFI did something wrong.

On the day Sanjay Singh became president, the WFI announced two wrestling competitions, the U15 and U20 nationals, to be held in Nandini Nagar, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. They planned to do this very quickly, from December 28-30. But, they didn’t inform everyone properly and didn’t follow the right rules.

According to the WFI’s own rules, big decisions like this should be discussed by a group called the Executive Committee. They need to give at least 15 days’ notice for a meeting, or 7 days for an emergency meeting. 

Also, a lot of people need to be there for the meeting to count. But this time, the Secretary General of WFI wasn’t even involved in the meeting that decided on these competitions.

The Sports Ministry found out that the new WFI leaders were too influenced by the old leaders, especially the former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is in court for some serious accusations. 

This is not right because the old leaders shouldn’t control the new ones, and there should be no connection with anyone facing serious charges.

The ministry says that the new WFI’s actions were not fair or transparent. They didn’t follow the right steps and were not open about their decisions. This is important for trust among athletes and everyone involved in sports.

The United World Wrestling, the main body for wrestling worldwide, had already banned WFI in August for not holding elections on time. Now, the Sports Ministry has asked the Indian Olympic Association to form a temporary group to handle WFI’s work until things are sorted out.

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So basically, the WFI has been suspended because they didn’t follow their own rules and seemed to be under the wrong influence, which is not good for the sport or the athletes. The Sports Ministry has taken action to fix this and make sure everything is done fairly and openly in the future.