NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation is having a rethink on the vexed issue of AIFF president Praful Patel’s promise to meet with the I-League clubs, which had been taken off the agenda after the “mass boycott” of the Hero Super Cup.
IANS, quoting sources, reports that senior AIFF officials would be meeting with the federation’s marketing partner, Football Sports Development Ltd, later this month to chalk out a strategy, after which Patel would explain the plan to the I-League clubs.
However, no dates for the proposed meeting have been fixed, the newswire reports.
The main point of discussion in the meeting, it is believed, will be to finalise whether to invite new bid documents to induct fresh clubs in the Indian Super League (ISL) for the 2019-20 season and officially make the ISL the top league or to continue with the present arrangement of playing two leagues simultaneously for one final season.
“Given the current situation and the time constraint, the chances of opening fresh bids for next season’s ISL seem unlikely,” IANS quotes the source as having said.
“But the I-League clubs should be told that their interests would be kept in mind before drawing up the future roadmap,” the source added.
The AIFF is aware that the present arrangement of playing two leagues simultaneously could be continued for maximum one more season as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had allowed it to happen on a strictly temporary basis.
