Rumours of an Indian Super League (ISL) and I-league merger have been doing the rounds for a year now. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) finally ended the suspense yesterday, by unveiling a different system as compared to one Super division as presumed earlier.
A major revamp in Indian football's upper echelons will see three divisions – ISL, League 1 and League 2.
The top division will include all existent ISL teams whereas tenders for other outfits will also be entertained. It still remains unclear whether fan favourite I-league clubs such as East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC will be added.
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The I-league will be renamed to League 1, with all the current division clubs plying their trade here.I-league 2 will be rechristened to League 2, with the existent clubs joining hands with franchises from states that have never been represented before (eg. Bihar).
Around 50 representatives from various clubs attended the AIFF conference on May 17 to learn about the new changes. With most franchises currently processing the changes, I-league clubs have been apprehensive about the new system.
No incentive for I-league clubs
During the meeting, Sporting Clube de Goa President Peter Vaz expressed his concerns. He said, “This is a basic knee-jerk reaction by the AIFF. Such impulsive decisions will take Indian football down. I request AIFF to provide us with soft copies, so that we can come back with our apprehensions. We were always promised that the I-league and ISL are of equal importance and this doesn't highlight that.”
The top division, which will only include ISL franchises doesn't give access to I-league clubs. Only outfits willing to pay the franchise free will be allowed to participate.
“Do you really think clubs such us SCG who particiapte in a league and not a tournament like ISL, should be paying extra to compete against them?” Vaz added.
An elite division with no promotion or relegation means, even if an I-league club does do well, they will not be promoted. The only way to square-off against top clubs be through the Super Cup, which includes teams across three divisions.
Salgaocar, a club that has been around for close to 60 years had similar thoughts about the decision. The club's General Secretary Adlar D'Cruz said, “I would love to chat with you about it, but we need something good about the decision to talk about. If you want only negative output, then I'm not talking.”
The AIFF has given club and franchises alike 10 days to respond on the matter. Vaz added, “It seemed AIFF is in a hurry as FIFA had given them three years for ISL, before having one uniform league.
“Hence, it seems they are fastening the process without a proper plan in place. They cannot just ask us to leave all the work we have done towards developing our club towards a structure.”
FC Dempo General Secretary Wilfried D'Souza also raised an important point regarding the topic. He said, “So what will happen if FC Dempo and FC Goa qualify for the Super Cup, there are a lot of aspects that we need to look into and we will go back with our apprehensions.
Only Bengaluru FC have given a positive statement for League 1
Apart from Bengaluru FC, no other I-league club is yet to come out with a positive statement regarding the league. A source close to Mohun Bagan told Sportskeeda, “We will be having a meeting tomorrow to discuss this matter.
“It's too early to say anything, but we can say that if we don't get promoted or have no growth and be tagged as a second division team it makes no sense. A lot of the ISL players play in our main team, so does that mean they are better than us? We will have to discuss this.”
ISL franchises are yet to comment on the issue, but ISL and Reliance Sports CEO Sundar Raman was sceptical about the number of professional players. He said, “There is no way we can have a 16-team first division because there are not enough players for us to fill the teams.”
East Bengal have refused to comment on the issue till next week, stating that they will study the proposal first. With a core of the I-League clubs showing apprehension to the new setup, AIFF will have to deal with a lot of back and forth before implementing the model in 2018/19.
