Mohun Bagan, East Bengal fail AFC Club Licencing

A six member expert team from the Asian Football Confederation visited the 14 I-League clubs over the last week to access their status and to see if they comply with the AFC Club Licencing criteria set out of by the AFC and AIFF to fulfill status of a professional football team in India. If a club does comply with the criteria by December 31, then they would be thrown out of the league and sadly eight of the 14 clubs failed the screening, amongst them Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.

This was disclosed by the visiting AFC delegation at Football House in New Delhi yesterday with all the 14 clubs present. The AFC Delegation comprising of Tokuaki Suzuki (Director of Competition), Maskat Klychamamedov (Development Manager, AFC Professional Football Project Manager), Steve Kim Tae Hyung (Media and Communication Manager), Bryan Kuan Wee Hoong (Director, Audit), Khan Hung Meng (Development Officer, Coach Education Department) and Mahajan Vasudevan Nair (Sports Lawyer) along with I-League CEO Sunando Dhar and Sujesh Rajan (I-League, Senior Manager) had visited the clubs. Visited the club, looked at the club structure, general organisation, training facilities and stadium.

Only six clubs in defending champions Dempo SC, Churchill Brothers SC, Pune FC, Chirag United SC, JCT and Mumbai FC have fulfilled the criteria so far. The other eight failed due to different reasons. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal failed due to the fact that they have the same 50% owners, the United Breweries Group; the PSU (Public Sector Units) clubs in Air India, ONGC and HAL due to their status; while Salgaocar SC and Viva Kerala due to the lack of their audit papers; and the AIFF XI (India Under-20) due to the fact of missing a number of factors.

The clubs have until December 31, 2010 to fulfill the criteria or otherwise they will not be allowed to take part in the 2011/12 I-League season. But the question remains if all will be able to do so. Salgaocar and Viva Kerala have the easiest of tasks. Get their numbers and accounts checked and hand in the papers with profit or loss. But for the other six the problems could be more fundamental.

An exception for the AIFF XI is likely as the team is linked to the overall development program of the national federation. One of the reasons which could be given by the AIFF is the fact that the federation has to look after youth development as not enough is done by all the clubs. If that had been the case, then all this would not have been needed.

The PSUs are at a cross road. Will the AFC and AIFF find a backdoor for them to stay in the I-League or will the rules for all apply. If second is the case, then it could be quite tough for them to stay in the league, actually it looks very unlikely.

For Mohun Bagan and East Bengal a fundamental issue has come up which surprisingly no one seems to have thought about. No two clubs anywhere in the world can be owned by the same entity, even if it is through different arms of a company or corporation. In the case of the Kolkata giants Vijay Mallya happens to be a director at both clubs; while Mohun Bagan is sponsored by McDowell's, rivals East Bengal wear Kingfisher on their jersey's. If the UB Group have to relinquish the ownership of one of the two Maidan giants will have to be seen. If this becomes part of the criteria, then things will surely get much more difficult then who does the UB Group drp of the two clubs and who would be willing to take over the UB group stake in that club.

A major concern for the visiting AFC team are the match venues. None of the stadium got an A-class certification. The closest to certification is the Stadium at the Balewadi sports complex in Pune, while the Saltlake Stadium has been provisionally certified due to its artificial turf but the stands and other facilities are a major worry.

The first step is taken, the clubs informed about what they have and what needs to be done. The AFC is set to send a team again in January 2011 to look at the development in three month's time.