New Delhi: Mohun Bagan have lost faith in the All India Football Federation’s ability to adjudicate the long-dragging Anwar Ali transfer dispute fairly and have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

As the matter has dragged on for over 18 months now and with AIFF’s players status committee, which was supposed to begin fresh adjudication on January 12, deferring fresh hearings indefinitely, Bagan have taken the matter to the Swiss Court.

“At this moment, requesting CAS to hear the case directly as we do not have any interest in AIFF mechanism,” Bagan have written to the Lausanne-headquartered international sports tribunal.

Originating in July 2024 following Ali’s unilateral termination of contract to move from Bagan to East Bengal on a mega-buck multi-year deal, the matter have move back and forth between AIFF’s player status and appeal committees.

The PSC had initially found the defender guilty and banned him for four months and imposed two transfer window bans on East Bengal and his then parent club Delhi FC in September, 2024.

Ali, EB and DFC were also told to pay Bagan Rs 12.9 crore, which upon challenge in Delhi High Court was set aside, along with a directive for the appeal committee to hear the matter afresh.

After at least a dozen adjournments, the appeal committee then resisted from delivering any judgement and on December 26, 2025, lobbed that matter back to the player status committee for fresh hearings, noting that any fresh order would remain subject to final outcome of proceedings before Delhi HC.

The PSC was supposed to begin fresh proceedings on January 12 but has deferred the matter, prompting the Indian Super League champions to take it out of its hands.

Since the deadline to lodge an appeal was 21 days from appeal committee’s order, Bagan lodged their plea on Friday (the last possible day) against the decision.

Earlier, Bagan and Ali had separately appealed to AIFF for speedy resolution to the case as the India international continues to play for both club and country.

Bagan had also sought FIFA’s intervention in November, 2025, for liberty to approach CAS for a fair and timely conclusion.

FIFA responded confirming intention to communicate with AIFF regarding the relevant proceedings “as necessary”.