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The Asian Football Confederation organised meeting of Indian football stakeholders about the future Indian club football structure was held earlier today at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
The meeting was attended by the All India Football Federation, the I-League, the Football Sports Development Limited (organisers of the Indian Super League), I-League clubs, Indian Super League franchises and the Football Players Association of India besides officials from the AFC and FIFA.
The different stakeholders made the trip from India to KL with different motives and intentions, which according to my understanding of the meeting ended in different rsults for the different parties.
The AFC did its homework going into the meeting having prepared a list of four potential models of going forward in Indian club football, which would be for the mid- to long-term besides a potential timetable of working out a suitable model in the coming five months.
Soe had hoped for more clarify from the meeting, but for the AFC it was about understanding the different positions of the stakeholders, which really happened in this matter for the first time with AFC General Secretary Dato Windsor John staying throughout the day.
Within the ISL camp there was hope of clearing an AFC Cup spot for the ISL to make the tournament turn into a proper league and have a stamp of endorsement from the AFC, while the I-League clubs wanted to avoid a parallel system of both leagues functioning in parallel.
What happens will have to be seen as some celebrated their victory of having convinced the AFC and others, but with nothing decided on the day a lot of work is left to find a solution suitable for Indian football and not just for a specific stakeholder group.
Often forgotten in recent months is that different stakeholders and entities have only looked at their problems and issues or tried to ensure that they get the best deal, but that Indian football could be the loser hasn’t really bothered them.
While the AFC will lead the work on the mid- and long-term plans in the coming weeks and months, the plan for the 2017/18 season has been decided at this meeting would be set by the AIFF and it could happen as early as tomorrow as a special AIFF Executive Committee meeting is taking place in Mumbai which could either keep the system of the last three years in place, first ISL then followed by I-League or run the two in parallel from November to May.
The I-League clubs have demanded another meeting with the AIFF before taking any final decision on the upcoming season.
What now happens will have to be seen…
