I-League: 14 team league, PSU sides to stay!

I had kept a question mark last night behind my article 'PSU sides out of I-League?' because as per my information it hadn't been fully decided if the three 'Public Sector Undertaking' clubs - Air India, ONGC and HAL, would be allowed to stay in the I-league or would be thrown out, while the Indian media reported that a final decision had been taken and the clubs had been thrown out.

This was clarified by the AFC president Mohammed bin Hammam at a press conference in New Delhi today, where he said, "The committee has decided to accept all the 14 teams in the next edition of the Indian Professional League. However, there are four teams (HAL, ONGC, Air India, Indian Arrows) who have just not met one criteria for commercial entity. The eligibility for these four teams has been extended by one year."

This did come as a surprise as many where of the expectations that the AFC would maintain their stand of wanting a real professional I-League in the 2011/12 season. But that under these circumstances will not be the case as the league remains semi-professional even terming it professional.

The Indian Professional Football Ad-hoc committee discussed and decided following key points: composition of the I-League, time-line to set up the I-League 2011-2012 season, the registration of I-League clubs and the I-League organisation.

Following the last meeting of the committee last September a thorough and wide-ranging inspection of all I-League clubs was conducted in October/November 2010 by an AFC Professional Football Project Special Mission Team, and the members, after discussing the report presented to them, approved the composition of the I-League first division with 10 clubs that have met the criteria and decided to give a waiver to four clubs, which have failed to meet the requirements.

The 10 clubs, which complied with the I-League criteria, are: 1. Mohun Bagan AC (Saltlake Stadium, Kolkata), 2. East Bengal Club (Saltlake Stadium, Kolkata), 3. Chirag United SC (Barasat Stadium, Kolkata - to improve the stadium facilities by July 2011), 4. Viva Kerala (Jawahar Stadium, Kannur - to improve the stadium facilities by July 2011), 5. Mumbai FC (Cooperage Ground, Mumbai - to improve the stadium facilities by July 2011), 6. JCT FC (Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana), 7. Pune FC (Balewadi Stadium, Pune), 8. Churchill Brothers SC (Nehru Stadium, Margao), 9. Dempo SC (Nehru Stadium, Margao), 10. Salgaocar SC (Nehru Stadium, Margao).

The members also recommended that three clubs - ONGC (Cooperage Ground, Mumbai), Air India (Cooperage Ground, Mumbai) and HAL (Bangalore Football Stadium) – who failed to meet the 'commercial entity’ criteria, and also Indian Arrows (Ambedkar Stadium, Delhi) be given a grace period of one season in the first division on the condition that if any one of them wins the I-League or finishes second or third, they will not be eligible to represent India in the AFC Champions League.

It was further suggested that the top two second division teams would be eligible for promotion to the first division only if they satisfied the professional league criteria. In case they fail to meet the criteria then there would be no relegation of any club from the first division, which would continue with the same 14 teams.

The members agreed to a proposal that the deadline for the clubs to improve their stadiums would be July 2011, following which another inspection of the clubs would be undertaken between July to September 2011. Thereafter, the I-League's 2011/12 season would kick off on September 2011.

The committee proposed that the I-League regulations should be revised to ban the registration and participation of I-League clubs in other leagues other than the I-League and that I-League club players should not be allowed to register with any other club other than I-League clubs. This would mean no I-League sides in the Calcutta Premier Division or Goa Professional League.

With all the matches at present being organised by the local Football Association (state or district), the committee proposed that the clubs should start implementing the home match operations - including and not limited to ticket sales, match operations and security. This would mean that all the clubs would have to create new jobs and positions within their system to run such match day operations.