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The AIFF Executive Committee met yesterday in Mumbai and no final decision was announced on the temporary league structure for the 2017/18 season despite the wish of the AIFF president Praful Patel to do, but he was opposed by vice-presidents Subrata Dutta and Larsing Ming, so a final decision was postponed and a meeting called tomorrow, June 10 in Mumbai.
The AIFF president thinks that due to the time constraints in the 2017/18 season due to the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup – India in October 2017 and the 2018 SAFF Cup in May 2018 in Dhaka, there are only six months available to the AIFF to play the Indian Super League and I-League, which according to the AIFF top brass only leaves them with one option to play the ISL and I-League in parallel.
Now in the meeting tomorrow, Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan along with Indian Football Association (IFA) secretary Utpal Ganguli will meet the AIFF president Praful Patel potentially along with other stakeholders of Indian football to discuss their potential ISL switch or how their interests in the I-League safeguarded especially in regard to players.
Both outfits picked up ISL bid documents, but they did not submit them in protest. The two clubs have three points which they want fulfilled for a switch to the ISL, no franchise fee of Rs 15 crores, a share from the central revenue pool and be allowed to play their home matches in Kolkata.
“Both the clubs and we (IFA) will be meeting the president of AIFF on Saturday. There will be only the three of us,” Mr. Ganguli told IANS.
“Praful Patel got a call from Mr. Ganguli this morning and he was requested to meet the two clubs once to address the issue. Mr. Patel wanted to meet them as early as tomorrow (Friday) but it was not feasible. So Saturday has been fixed,” an AIFF official said.
