Former captain Baichung Bhutia Thursday said stakeholders of Indian football need to "drop their egos" and make a few sacrifices while deciding the structure of the country's domestic league, which remains an unresolved matter due to lack of consensus.
Up against the controversial move to accord top-tier status to the IMG Reliance-backed Indian Super League (ISL), I-League officials met the All India Football Federation president Praful Patel Wednesday.
But the New Delhi meet remained inconclusive as Patel said both the leagues would co-exist for two more years, a time frame by which the AIFF hopes to reach a solution.
Bhutia said the need is to set pride aside.
"I think the biggest challenge right now is to keep the egos down. It has to be give and take. Everything can't be the way you want. It has to be a bit of sacrifice for all the parties (I-League, ISL and AIFF), keeping your egos down, looking at the betterment of Indian football," Bhutia said at the Football Players Association of India's new building.
"Everybody right now is looking at their own clubs to survive, their own league to do well... Yes, there are different challenges in I-League and there are also pluses and minuses in it. We have got a same thing for the Federation and ISL as well."
"The structure of Indian football, sooner it gets settled, the better. Till the time you don't get your structure this is going to go on happening. Federation's biggest challenge with ISL and I-League is to get the structure right."
Pointing out the decline in TV ratings, the 47-year-old said: "It's the data showing it... The fans in the stadium are coming down drastically. It's there in black and white. When it started it was the third highest watched league in the stadium. Now you need to try and do something different to revive it."
"Including Mohun Bagan and East Bengal could be one of the options. I feel by them coming in, it will add value to the league. For them to make revenue, they want the league to be longer. The sponsorship comes very less for a period of three-four months."
"Now we should try and get into top 50. Ranking is important as you get easy qualifying rounds. People also follow you. When I was the technical committee chairman, our aim was to get into top-100 with Stephen (Constantine) and qualify to the Asia Cup, that's something we have achieved."
"The need to be more transparent with their ideas and views. They have to be vocal and should not compromise."