New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) All India Football Federation (AIFF) has reacted to allegations of harassment and "heckling" levelled by a woman Executive Committee member, Valanka Alemao, who is also a member of the FIFA Women’s Development Committee.

Alemao wrote a letter to FIFA Ethics Committee chair Martin Ngoga and FIFA Women’s Football Committee chair Laura Georges, seeking an inquiry into the matter and initiating action as per FIFA Statutes.

"I am also exploring the possibility of taking up the issue at other important fora to curb this tendency to harass and humiliate a woman member. I request you to take serious note of my complaint and initiate necessary action," Alemao wrote in a March 30-dated letter, which owns IANS.

Speaking exclusively to IANS, an AIFF top official reacted strongly to such allegations and said, "Somebody needs to ask what the meaning of 'heckle' is. What was that? There were 13 EC members in that boardroom. So, what is the meaning of heckle and what is 'raising voice'? That is what I want to know.

"This is the purpose of blackmailing our first-on-first mission. There's a board; all respected, dignified members were there. There's a sports minister of Mizoram, chairman of the parallel development committee. Why would anyone heckle anyone?"

Alemao first wrote a letter to AIFF on March 29, alleging that Chaubey, along with Vice President N.A.Haris and Deputy Secretary General Satyanarayan targeted her with "unnecessary and disrespectful" remarks and raised their tone time and again, "beyond an acceptable decibel" with the intention to "intimidate" her.

"She wrote a letter addressing the president, vice president, deputy secretary, and the committee member. So what does that say in that letter? Is there heckling over there in the statement? She said the deputy secretary's voice was more than decibels, a higher decibel. Is there a specific decibel described that you can speak in?" the official asked.

The AIFF official also maintained a firm stance that no harassment, gender-based discrimination, or "different behaviour" took place during the meeting. "There's no allegation against me. I don't have to defend myself or give any clarification. The background of the story has been given. Just keep one thing in mind, there is no heckling, no harassment, no men, no women, and no different behaviour."

The controversy stems from an executive committee meeting held to discuss the adoption of the National Sports Governance Act and a landmark 20-year commercial bid for the federation.

"It's a boardroom. In a boardroom, everyone is representing themselves in the same capacity. It was an executive meeting called from two agenda points; One was the National Sports Governance Act, to be adopted by the member associations, which are state associations.

"And the other was that the AIFF has got a 20-year commercial bid for the federation. Nothing beyond that has been discussed, talked about, or spoken. So logically, you can either agree with the logic or you can disagree with the logic,"the official concluded.

--IANS

bc/bsk/