Indian football needs an IPL-like auction to sustain

So finally, the process is on for a possible merger of the I-League, India’s premier football league, and the Indian Super League (ISL) run by the IMG-Reliance. Mail Today has learnt that talks between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and stakeholder clubs are already on and a few meetings have already taken place.

There is a view that the running of two leagues, I-League and ISL, in one calendar year has made life difficult for Indian footballers. They have hardly been getting any recovery time and in the process, getting injured, with the ultimate sufferer being the national team.

Moreover, the ISL, from the day it was launched, has been taking the limelight away from the I-League, because of the presence of glamorous foreign recruits and excellent marketing policies. “Yes, the process is on,” said Kushal Das, general secretary of the AIFF.

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“We are discussing the whole structure of club football in India with all stakeholders and trying to do the streamlining as early as possible,” he said. “We have not fixed any deadline, but the earlier the better,” Das added.

I-League CEO Sunando Dhar was more forthcoming. He said, “Yes, we have initiated talks with IMG-Reliance about a possible merger and the talks are progressing well. This is not an easy task, we will have to talk to the clubs and all stakeholders also.”

To a pointed question about whether the merged league will start from the next football session, that is 2017, he said, “As of now, there is no time frame, but we are trying to finalise it at the earliest.” Chirag Tanna of IMG-Reliance, on the other hand, said, “I am not in a position to make any comment on the merger at this point of time.”

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Debabrata Sarkar, executive committee member of the frontline Kolkata club East Bengal, said, “Well (the) AIFF has informed us about the planning of the merger of I-League and ISL. With the eight ISL franchise teams, they will take East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC and will add another franchise team to start a 12-team new league."

However, he added: “Nothing is finalised as yet and we are also looking into the whole issue before agreeing to such a proposal.” Though planning for a merger of the I-League and ISL is on, there are several questions that have to be answered.

For instance, will the new league be a two tier league on the lines of the I-League? How will the relegation system work? What will be the status of players who appear for an I-League club and also an ISL franchise, the likes of Mehtab Hussain, Harmanjot Singh Khabra, Arnab Mandal and many more?

Will there be an IPL-like auction for all the Indian and foreign players? Will there be a fixed budget for all the teams? Will the new league follow the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rules and allow only four foreigners, including one from the Asian quota? And most importantly, what will happen to the clubs which will not be included in the new merged league?

These are the questions that have been eating into the minds of every football admirer of the country.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)