NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has granted licenses to nine Hero Indian Super League clubs of the 12 clubs who had applied for Premier 1 License during the 2023-24 club licensing process.
The ‘ICLS Premier 1’ licences were granted to Mumbai City FC, ATK Mohun Bagan FC, FC Goa, Jamshedpur FC, Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC, Odisha FC, Kerala Blasters FC and Punjab FC, the AIFF said in a media statement.
NorthEast United FC, Hyderabad FC and East Bengal FC failed to secure licenses due to multiple “A” Criteria Failures.
Punjab FC, on the basis of being the Hero I-League champions in the 2022-23 season, have been promoted to the 2023-24 Hero ISL after securing the Premier 1 License.
The Club Licensing Committee of the All India Football Federation, chaired by Girija Shanker Mungali, met via video conferencing on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
Present in the meeting were committee members Ravishankar Jayaraman, Yash K Nayak and Madhu Kumari. Anirban Gupta, Pradip Choudhury and Shekhar Nagar were granted leave of absence.
The Indian Club Licensing system is an annual process through which clubs get the mandatory license to participate in National and AFC Club Competitions for each season.
Under the latest regulations, Hero Indian Super League clubs are required to apply for “ICLS Premier 1” license, which would grant them participation in all AFC Club Competitions (subject to qualification on sporting merit) and the Hero Indian Super League. The Hero I-League clubs are required to apply for “ICLS Premier 2” license, which would grant them participation in AFC Cup (subject to qualification on sporting merit) and the Hero I-League.
Earlier the Asian Football Confederation, on a formal application from the All India Football Federation, exempted the participating clubs from fulfilling the Youth Teams Criteria.
The Committee also approved a shortfall in spending over the Club Development Plan of F10 Criteria in the financial year 2021-22 due to the ongoing pandemic as clubs provided a declaration to spend the shortfall in the next three financial years.
The Committee will meet again to decide on the Premier 2 License applications.
