Red card for Virat Kohli; AIFF president issues veiled warning to Premier Futsal League

New Delhi: India Test captain Virat Kohli, who promoted the porposed Premier Futsal League as the tournament's brand ambassador, found himself as a target of All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel.

Patel, who is also a FIFA vice-president (SAFF region) post a tweet on Saturday saying any person involved with the Indian Super League (ISL) cannot be associated with any other league. And the message was clearly meant for Kohli.

Any brand Ambassador of an ISL franchise cannot do the same for a league not recognised by #AIFF or #FIFA — Praful Patel (@praful_patel) June 18, 2016

Kolhi, who has shown keen interest in promoting other sports, is also the brand ambassador and co-owner of ISL franchise FC Goa. It's imperative to mention that ISL is a FIFA sanctioned league, while Premier Futsal is not approved by football's global body.

Patel’s comment comes after the AIFF made it clear that it will consider "legal action" against organisers of Premier Futsal League, said it is planning to come up with a similar event of its own.

The AIFF is the governing body for all forms of football, including futsal, in India and we will be announcing our plans, in relation to futsal, in due course," read a letter from AIFF general secretary Kushal Das to state associations earlier.

This is to bring to your notice that AIFF is not involved with the proposed Premier Futsal League, the news of the launch of which has been making rounds in media in the recent past. The competition is neither sanctioned by AIFF nor is organised under the aegis of AIFF. Further, the organising body, Futsal Association of India (FAI) is not a member or affiliated in any way with the AIFF, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) or FIFA," the letter continued.

Headed by Portuguese legend Luis Figo, Premier Futsal League is set to open it's inaugural season from July 15.