Thursday , March 28 2024

I-League clubs undecided on the number of foreigners with committee meeting set to decide!

The I-League Committee is set to meet tomorrow in New Delhi with the number of foreigners to be allowed to play in the 2017/18 season as one of the topics to be discussed.

The Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan had been at the forefront for the demand to have five foreigners playing and eight in total in the I-League squads of 25 players just like has been decided by the Indian Super League.

But their I-League rivals are thinking otherwise with five clubs in Shillong Lajong FC, current champions Aizawl FC, Minerva Punjab FC, Chennai City FC, and promoted NEROCA FC having come together to jointly send a letter to the All India Football Federation to consider to keep the three plus one foreigners rule in the I-League in the interest of Indian talent development.

What the other clubs in Churchill Brothers SC and DSK Shivajians FC are thinking about it is unknown.

Now it will be interesting to see what decision the I-League Committee takes on this matter, then an increase wouldn’t be in the interest of Indian football but on the other side with the Indian Super League and I-league set to be played in parallel, there is a question if there are enough Indian footballers of quality to fill the squads.

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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One comment

  1. Most of the folks failed to understand the true intent of clubs like Shillong Lajong and Aizwal FC opposing
    the demand of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan the right to sign 8 foreigners for the I-league.

    Many are thinking that EB and MB want to field 8 foreigners and 3 Indians in their playing
    squad.That is not true. Instead of 4 foreigners EB and MB just want to field 5 foreigners in the
    playing squad. As a backup EB and MB wants to sign 3 more additional foreigners.

    Now why these small clubs don´t want EB and MB to sign additional foreigners ? Do you think
    its out of love for Indian footballers ? Probably not. Every year , plenty of African footballers join
    the trial of the smaller clubs of Calcutta Football League ( CFL ). Many of them subsequently join
    these smaller clubs like Aryans , Bhowanipur and Southern Samiti. At the end of CFL , most of
    these small clubs of Kolkata don´t participate in major tournaments and most of these foreigners
    are released at the end of CFL. Here comes the magic ! These clubs like Shillong Lajong now
    hire these released Africans at a very cheap price – kind of exploitation of human labour.I hope
    many of you have by now understood what is motivating these clubs like Shillong Lajong to
    protest. During the CFL if EB MB likes a foreigner playing at a smaller club , these big clubs are
    going to immediately sign those guys. Now clubs like Shillong Lajong and Aizwal would have to
    search for fresh foreigners and pay them a standard price. They would no longer be able to
    exploit the African footballers.That why these clubs are not even willing to accept the formula of 4
    ( playing eleven ) +3 ( backup )foreigners .They only want 4 + 0 so that they can be free to
    exploit the hardworking African footballers.