Suspended WFI to go ahead with Executive Committee meeting, vows to conduct Nationals

New Delhi: The suspended Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will go ahead with its Executive Committee meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday and has vowed not to budge from its decision of hosting the national championships despite the sports ministry issuing a warning against it.The notice for the Executive Committee was issued on 31 December and most state associations are expected to attend.It is expected the members will ratify the decisions taken during the General Council meeting of the WFI on December 21, hours after the new office bearers were elected.The WFI had announced that it will conduct Nationals in Pune from January 29-31, prompting the sports ministry to say that the federation has no authority to conduct the Senior National Championships and any event staged by the body will be considered "unsanctioned" and "unrecognised".Read | Sports Ministry won't recognise events organised by suspended WFI"We are going ahead with the meeting. I am expecting all affiliated units to attend the meeting. We will not step back. The decision to host the Nationals was taken at the AGM and the members will discuss and ratify it," WFI President Sanjay Singh told PTI."It is not an individual decision taken by me. AGM had taken the decisions and the EC should pass it. We will decide collectively," he added.One of the points in the circulated agenda is to "explain define and interpret certain provisions of the constitution."The circular clearly mentioned, citing the constitution, that the president "shall be chief officer of the WFI. He shall be empowered to call meetings of the council and executive, if he deems proper."It may be mentioned that the ministry had objected to non-involvement of the secretary general in the December 21 meeting.Read | Wrestling's quota status for Paris 2024 and how WFI chaos will hurt the sportCiting violation of the National Sports Code and the WFI constitution, the government had suspended the newly-elected body on December 24, three days after the federation conducted its election.The WFI has maintained that it neither accepts the suspension nor does it recognise the ad-hoc panel that has been constituted by the IOA to manage the day-to-day affairs of the sport.The WFI also maintained that it had not flouted any rule and that the president, as per the constitution, had the power to take decisions and the secretary general was bound to execute those decisions.Interestingly, the ad-hoc panel has already announced that it will conduct senior Nationals from February 3 in Jaipur and the age group championships in Gwalior.