IPFCA denies clubs on a confrontation course with AIFF and IMG-R

Speaking at a media briefing after the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association meet, which decided to float their own tournament during the three month break early next year if IMG-Reliance and the AIFF conduct their proposed IPL-style franchise based football league, Chirag Tanna, secretary of the IPFCA, denied that the clubs were on a confrontation course (it looks more like a defensive measure on IPFCA’s part though) with the AIFF-IMG-R combine by proposing their own tournament.

“If there is a break you can’t expect our players to sit around and do nothing,” he said. In case the authorities came down hard on their proposed venture (a Cup formation like the Federation Cup), Tanna suggested that the clubs could play ‘friendlies’ against each other with a view to keep their players occupied and match fit.

Tanna, who also doubles up as head, operations, Pune FC, termed the defeaning silence on the part of the AIFF on the vexed issues of the IMG-R league and change in format of the I-League and Federation Cup as “quite disturbing”. The IPFCA is hoping to meet with the AIFF top brass to thrash out these issues hopefully in a week’s time.

“I don’t quite see the benefits of the new format (the idea to divide the 14 teams into East and West conferences and to play a super league with the four top teams from each group),” Tanna emphasized. Countering the argument that the move would help reduce the travel costs of the clubs, the IPFCA official said that other solutions could be provided to offset this problem. He also said the top leagues in the world all adopt the home & away format, barring the Major League Soccer in the US. But what the AIFF was proposing was not quite MLS. “We certainly need to get a little more clarity on this,” he stressed.

Tanna also queried why the facilities for the I-League had taken a nose dive – for example, match telecasts have no pre-match, post-match and half-time build ups, which was there when Zee Sports held the marketing and telecast rights – despite IMG-R paying more money to the AIFF than what Zee did. Where is the money going, he wanted to know.

Asked about the fact that Baichung Bhutia had welcomed the proposed IMG-R league, Tanna said they did not necessarily agree with the views of the veteran Sikkimese sniper. He also presumed that United Sikkim were not part of this meeting because they have been relegated. He also debunked the news that IMG-R had signed about a dozen players as reported in a section of the media, saying that the actual figure was only 5-6.

It must be remembered that IMG-R was supposed to get back to the IPFCA last season itself with a plan to resurrect the I-League and Indian football. But nothing further has been heard from them on the subject.

The IPFCA is, however, prepared to talk to IMG-R about the release of the players, provided they can be convinced how football and the clubs’ interests will be served by the proposed money spinning venture.

But as far as the AIFF is concerned, it appears that they themselves seem to be in the dark about the IMG-R league!