All the three Goan club owners -- Shivanand Salgaocar, Shrinivas Dempo and Peter Vaz (Sporting Clube de Goa) had taken united stand onto oppose the proposed restructuring that makes ISL a top-tier league and relegates I-League to the second division.
"The clubs which have pulled out were not investing in football. They blame other reasons but the real reason is that they don't have bandwidth now to continue," the AIFF president did not take names but it was clear to everyone about the clubs he was referring to.
Late last year, another Goan club Dempo also pulled out of the national league.
Praful said that I-League is still country's premier national league and it remains AIFF's "top priority".
Talking about the much talked about proposed merger between I-League and Indian Super League, the president said that as and when it happens, it will be ISL that will "merge into I-League" and not the other way round.
"I-League remains our priority because there can only be one nationl league. The name can be whatever, name is not important," he said.
Meanwhile with India hosting the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in little over eight month's time, Patel said the national federation will continue to extend all support to the host nation team to produce a decent performance in the mega-event.
"I only hope they make us proud. The country's performance should be recognised.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
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