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Ahead of the AFC organised meeting in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow about the potential future structure of Indian club football, the organisers of the Indian Super League have been holding internal discussions with their franchises about changes to be made to the ISL after the three seasons played since 2014.
With an expansion from eight to at least 10 teams set to happen and a longer duration possible, the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) has been looking at ways of developing the ISL product further ahead of ISL-4.
In good news for Indian footballers, ISL teams will from Season 4 will take the field with six Indians and five foreigners instead of the earlier six foreigners and five Indians rule.
Further the ISL is set to drop the marquee player rule of having to sign a former (current) high profile player in the interest of promotion of the league, which over the three years has had minimal success on the field but cost the franchises a lot of money.
With these changes above an ISL franchise will continue to be allowed to sign a total squad of 25 players, but the composition is set to change. In an increase a total of 17 Indian players instead of 14 earlier plus eight foreigners instead of 11 foreigners will make up a squad in ISL-4. Also the clubs will have to sign two Indian developmental players under the age of 21.
Further the ISL in wanting to be seen as a proper league rather than a tournament are set to do away with their semifinals and final playoffs. The regular season winner of the Indian Super League would directly be declared champions.
These critical changes are set to be taken by the FSDL, but the duration and teams composition are still up in the air due to the decision on the future Indian club football structure still to be taken.
