I-League is dead, long live the ISL: AIFF

DELHI: The fledgling Indian Super League (ISL), now only in its third year, will enjoy the status of being India's premier football competition at the cost of the I-League, a competition the All India Football Federation first started in 1996.
The AIFF and its marketing partner, IMG-Reliance, which owns the ISL, made a IMG-Reliance, which owns the ISL, made a power-point presentation to all stakeholders during a meeting in the Capital on Tuesday, drawing furious reactions from clubs like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa, all of whom, despite their rich legacy , could miss out on a place in the top league when the new tendering process is announced.
The new combined league ­ which will be called ISL ­ will accommodate only two new teams, depending on which team meets the new criteria - largely financial. But even if all eight teams in the I-League are willing to spend big and meet the stringent criteria, there will be no place for all of them at the top.
“You cannot have 16 teams at the top simply because we do not have enough players,” said Sundar Raman, the chief operating officer (Sports) of Reliance, the biggest stakeholders in the ISL.
Worse still for I-League teams, those who are left out and forced to play in the newly-created League 1, will have no incentive of promotion to the top league. ISL teams finishing at the bottom will not be relegated to the lower league, while the top teams in League 1 will not be promoted to ISL.
“There are contractual obligations that have to be respected,” said AIFF president Praful Patel, without elaborating, possibly referring to the franchise agreement that ISL teams have with the league owners which make it clear that neither of them will be relegated for the length of their 10-year contract.
“Football is a game of serious investment,” said Patel. The proposal, or rather the `roadmap' for Indian football, leaves several I-League clubs in the lurch and it could possibly force them to shut shop. “If we fulfill the criteria, there is no place for us in the ISL. If we play in League 1, there is no avenue for us to get promoted to the top league. Why should we play at all,” asked a club official who attended the meeting.
The AIFF and its marketing partners, though, think differently. “The League 1 in fact will be a much better product than the existing I-League,” said Chirag Tanna, formerly with the now-disbanded Pune FC and now employed with Reliance Sports.
According to the proposal, the top league will have 10 teams, League 1another 10 teams and League 2 will be divided into East and West zones, accommodating 10 more. All leagues will run simultaneously for seven months, while lower league teams have been assured of matches only on weekends and live television coverage.
The AIFF will introduce a competition called the Super Cup which will include eight teams from the ISL, four from League 1 and four qualifiers from League 2. The competition will run for two months and the winner will be rewarded with a spot in the AFC Cup.
The AIFF said they want to take football beyond 15 states that have representation at the moment in all domestic tiers. “The aim is to involve a total of 50 teams across the three leagues by 2020,” said I-League CEO Sunando Dhar.
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