AFI sets July 31 deadline for mandatory registration of coaches

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has set July 31 deadline for mandatory registration of all the coaches — qualified and unqualified — in the country in its bid to tackle spiralling doping cases, making it clear that non compliance of the directive will lead to their blacklisting.

In its latest circular, following its decision in the January Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) to crack the whip on coaches suspected to be involved in doping of their wards, the AFI said that unregistered coaches, regardless of their qualifications, will not be permitted to impart training to athletes.

“AFI has decided to register all coaches, qualified or unqualified, who are engaged in training athletes across various venues throughout the country,” the national federation said in a circular on Saturday.

“Registration with AFI is mandatory for all coaches, regardless of their qualifications as unregistered coaches will not be permitted to impart training to athletes and will not be engaged in any activity of the AFI under any circumstances.” Upon successful registration, each coach will be allotted a unique registration number by the AFI and an ID card will be issued.

“The relevant details will be communicated to the registered coaches through their respective email addresses.”

Alarmed by the rising doping cases among Indian track and field athletes, the AFI, in its AGM in Chandigarh in January, has made it compulsory for all coaches to register with it or else they would be blacklisted.

In fact, the AFI had started the registration process last year but found that a large number of coaches are reluctant to register. Around 700 to 800 coaches got registered while the AFI expected 10 times this number.

That was the reason why the AFI made registration of coaches mandatory from this year. This was all the more important since the AFI is hoping to have more than 40,000 qualified athletes by 2036, and for that it needs coaches of integrity.

“Most of the doping in Indian athletics is because of the involvement of the coaches. So, we are making it mandatory for the coaches to register with the AFI. It can’t go on like this, else India may be suspended,” an AFI official had told PTI.

Anti-doping cell to also identify suspected coaches

The move for mandatory registration is in addition to the formation of an anti-doping cell to identify coaches suspected to be “involved in doping of their wards” and drawing up a list of training centres which serve as “hideouts” for cheats on the recommendation of a high-powered committee to deal with the menace.

The AFI will share this intelligence with the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) established by World Athletics.

The AFI had last year set up a high-powered committee headed by Delhi Police Special Cell Commissioner Sagarpreet Hooda to look into the doping issue.

“One of the recommendations of the high-powered committee is to prepare a list of suspected coaches and others involved in doping to know who and which coaches are promoting doping systematically,” AFI’s legal adviser Parth Goswami, who is also a member of World Athletics’ disciplinary and appeal panels, had said.

“Another is to prepare a list of centres across India which serve as hideouts and where athletes are trained with the consumption of banned substances. There are many hideouts and centres to avoid out-of-competition tests.”