Thursday , March 28 2024

AIFF meets Salgaocar FC, Sporting Clube de Goa & Dempo SC about I-League future!

I-League - Dempo - Salgaocar - Sporting GoaFollowing the joint meeting between AIFF officials and the Goan I-League clubs, a joint statement was issued on the meeting by Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar FC!

The joint meeting between AIFF officials and the Goan clubs was held at Hotel Lapaz Gardens, Vasco earlier today evening. The meeting was attended by Shrinivas Dempo (AIFF Vice-President), Shivanand Salgaocar (Salgaocar FC, President), Peter Vaz (Sporting Clube de Goa, President), Kushal Das (AIFF General Secretary), Sunando Dhar (I-League CEO) Chirag Tanna (Reliance Sports), Vivek Salgaocar (Salgaocar FC, Vice-President), Victor Fernandes (Sporting Clube de Goa, CEO), Adlear D’Cruz (Salgaocar FC, General Secretary), Eddie Noronha (Sporting Clube de Goa, General Secretary), Wilfred D’Souza (Dempo SC, General Secretary).

The Goan Clubs (Salgaocar FC & Sporting Clube de Goa) put forward the below mentioned principal points.

– No forced relegation of the I-League to a second tier league from the nation’s premier competition. All teams qualified for the I-League should be part of the top league.
– No bidding & no franchise fees for existing I-League clubs, merit being the only qualifying factor.
– All governance issues should rest with AIFF exclusively.

The AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das agreed to call a meeting of all I-League clubs in order to elicit their views on the matter. He also will be consulting with the AIFF President Praful Patel and the AIFF Executive Committee along with their marketing partners IMG-Reliance to revert back with a final binding proposal on or before July 31, 2016.

The two I-League clubs Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa hold, that their decision to withdraw stands unless they receive a final binding proposal/roadmap which includes the above three points.

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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One comment

  1. Jan Rodrigues

    Indian Football Roadmap; an Opinion

    I am no writer or journalist. I am writing this article as an ardent Indian football fan, who wants to see football develops as a professional game in my country.

    Lately, there has been a lot of talk and discussion that the ISL will be made the premier football league of the country. This might lead to the traditional clubs like East Bengal, Salgaocars and Mohun Bagan not being able to afford the fees in order to compete in this top football league.
    I am putting up a few suggestions to tackle the problems faced by both the AIFF and the Clubs which I hope will help them to find a solution to their dilemma.

    1. ISL as the top league:
    In my opinion AIFF should be applauded for suggesting that ISL should become the top league followed by I league (league 1) and I league 2(league 2). In any given country, the most money making league, is and has to be the top league in that country, so why not here in India?
    There have been opinions that I league clubs invested a vast amount of money, time and effort to fulfill the club licensing criteria. Yes, I fully agree with all the efforts taken by these clubs to get the required licenses but the league has failed to connect to fans and increase the number of fans attending or watching the game.
    So my suggestion is that the ISL can have 8 present teams. In addition, the next I league season’s top 4 clubs can be given a chance to get promoted into the ISL, and subsequently, the 2 lowest teams from that season can be relegated and the next season’s top 2 teams from League 1 can be promoted.
    A question now arises pertaining to the present ISL teams and AIFF who are bound by contractual obligations. In order to solve this problem ISL teams can be given immunity from relegation till the contract is fulfilled whereas the 4 teams and subsequent teams in the lower divisions can be exempted from these franchise’s fee till the time the ISL teams and AIFF have honoured their contracts.
    By this we give a fair chance to the I league (traditional) clubs to compete in the top league of the country and also honoured the contracts of ISL teams.
    So the league will eventually have 12 teams. This can gradually be increased to 16 teams competing for the top trophy, in the coming 8 to 10 years.

    2. National Cup( Federation Cup):
    The national cup can be played in between the league matches so that the clubs can get a chance to try out players. This will also serve a dual purpose by maintaining the fitness of the players throughout the year.
    The top division clubs along with the top clubs from the league 1 can be given byes for the initial rounds. Whereas, the lower division clubs, fight it out to reach the main rounds, in the preliminaries. League 3 and 4 (future) division clubs along with some state clubs can also be given a chance to enter the cup preliminary rounds so that they can rub shoulders with the big boys. This will give the lower clubs a platform to showcase their talent and might lead to unseen players being spotted.

    3. Youth Leagues:
    Youth leagues can continue as they are, being played at Zonal cum National levels, where all clubs from the top 3 leagues have to field their teams in all the age group leagues.
    Teams can be divided into zones depending on the number of teams in each zone.
    Academies also can be given spots, so that their trainees can get an opportunity to play alongside the junior teams from the top division clubs.
    U14, U16 and U18 can be the 3 feeder leagues for the clubs for future talents. This will aid in the youth and grassroot development.

    These are just my personal opinions, not to be taken against any individual or any team. Suggestions and questions are welcome.

    Jan Rodrigues (email: jan_rodrigues@rediffmail.com)