NEW DELHI: All India Football Federation president Praful Patel has publicly stated what industry circles close to the developments have known all along. Which is that with India hosting the FIFA Under-17 World Cup this year, the plans for a unified top tier club league will have to wait till 2018 at the earliest.
Referring to the much talked about proposed merger between I-League and Indian Super League, Patel said that as and when it happens, it will be ISL that will “merge into I-League” and not the other way round.
“There merger between I-League and ISL won’t happen this year. In future, if there is a merger it has to happen in the reverse way. ISL will have to merge with I-League not the other way round,” Patel told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the launch of inaugural Indian Women’s League.
“I-League remains our priority because there can only be one national league. The name can be whatever, name is not important,” he said.
