NEW DELHI: Five Hero Indian Super League clubs have failed to meet the AFC and national licensing criteria and will now have to either appeal the decision or seek exemption from the AIFF in order to take part in the ISL, which kicks off Friday.
Odisha FC, NorthEast United FC, Kerala Blasters FC, Hyderabad FC and new entrants SC East Bengal are the five clubs that were not handed licenses by the AIFF to be able to take part in AFC and national competitions this season, PTI reports.
“These five clubs will have to appeal against the decision or will have to seek exemption from sanctions if they want to take part in the ISL,” Sunando Dhar, AIFF’s CEO of Leagues, told PTI.
Meanwhile, an SC East Bengal official told the newswire on Monday that the freshly minted ISL side has applied for club licensing exemption for the 2020-21 season.
“We have requested for an exemption to participate in the National Competition from the Club Licensing committee,” PTI quotes the club official as having said.
“We were not able to comply with documents pertaining to the 2019-2020 season for different criteria but have submitted all documents which were in our control. We are hopeful that the committee will take the best decision for the club.”
Any club which fails to secure AFC License will not be able to take part in continental tournaments like AFC Champions League and AFC Cup even if they qualify from the ISL.
The AIFF said that a decision on the club licensing applications of eight I-League clubs will be taken soon. For clubs to get licenses, they need to fulfil five main criterias – sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administrative, legal and financial.
Owing to the current situation, the Asian Football Confederation has been considerate enough to accommodate criteria exception and deadline extension requests made by AIFF throughout the licensing cycle of 2020-21 season.
