The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), in an all stakeholders' meeting here on Wednesday, urged the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to speed up the short-term roadmap of Indian club football.
"The AFC cannot take a call. It is the AIFF which has to do the specifics and AFC can only guide. AFC urged AIFF to speed up things in the short-term but did not give any timeline," a club official who was present in the meeting told IANS.
Chaired by AFC General Secretary Dato Windsor John, the meeting included representatives of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the union sports ministry, all the I-League and some ISL clubs, officials of Football Players Association of India (FPAI) as well as officials from the game's world governing body FIFA, and the AFC.
The sport in the country has been grappling for a while with two leagues -- Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League -- running one after the other and jousting for top status.
Plans of a merger have been in the pipeline for some time until recently, when the idea of running both competitions simultaneously was mooted.
There have been talks of three I-League heavyweights -- Bengaluru FC, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal -- joining the ISL bandwagon.
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While decks have been cleared for Bengaluru to jump ship, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have been at loggerheads with Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL), organisers of ISL, over franchise fee, money from central pool and playing games out of Kolkata where ISL franchise Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) are already based.
"So as far as what will happen to the Kolkata clubs and will the two leagues run simultaneously, there was no headway made," the official said.
It was learnt that many ISL franchises skipped the meet.
No final decision was taken on whether an AFC slot would be awarded to ISL, an issue which its organisers had raised earlier.
"We have to decide on the short-term future of the game as soon as possible," AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told the federation's official website.
The AFC said there was unanimity on formulating the right structure for the development of the game in the country.
"The objectives were clear -- to help provide a road map for the future development of Indian football by reaching a consensus on the way forward. It was a significant step forward that there was unanimous agreement that the right structure for the game should be paramount," John said after the meeting.
East Bengal, represented by assistant general secretary Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta, and Mohun Bagan finance secretary Debasish Dutta, gave lengthy presentations highlighting their age-old legacy.
Mohun Bagan later released a statement, asserting that they have requested the AIFF to convene a meeting on June 12 as proposed by the AFC to discuss this year's domestic league structure.
John further pushed the AIFF to resolve the short-term impasse as Federation Cup champions Bengaluru have to take part in the AFC Cup Inter Zone semi-finals on August 23 at home against North Korean side 4.25 SC (April 25 Sports Club).
"They have to submit the squad list fifteen days prior to the match and for that they need to have a clear picture of what is happening. If there are two leagues running simultaneously, which player is staying and who is not," the official speaking on condition of anonymity said.
FPAI, represented by its president Renedy Singh, pushed for a single long-duration league.
For the short term roadmap, the stakeholders will meet again within a period of 7-10 days, an FPAI statement said.
Bhaichung Bhutia, AIFF advisor and former FPAI president, and Renedy also pointed out that with the current format of the two leagues being played roughly for three months each, many players are remaining unemployed while some get only three months of football which posed the biggest problem for Indian football now.
The duo also pointed out that players should have long term contracts with the clubs which makes the player more committed. The clubs also gain on their player transfer, when a footballer, who is on a long term contract, has a good season and is in demand.
--IANS
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