CHENNAI: With the air finally clearing over how many teams will be participating in the coming season of the Indian Super League, the discussion has finally moved on to how the league will be held, come November. Representatives of all ten ISL franchises met with ISL officials on Wednesday and aired their views on issues like player retention and operational aspects.
“There was a meeting on Wednesday, where clubs aired their views on how they think things should be,” sources close to the process revealed. “A decision on the player retention process including whether or not there will be a draft will be announced soon.” The discussions will continue with prominent player agents meeting ISL officials on Thursday.
While an official announcement is yet to be made, several clubs believe that a draft is looking increasingly likely. “We don’t know what exactly is going to happen but in all likelihood, it is going to be a draft,” revealed a club source.
But there is still a lot of opposition to that. Senior players who are happy with existing contracts will look to continue rather than go into the draft. It is learnt that Sunil Chhetri, in a meeting that AIFF president Praful Patel had with players, aired his views that draft system would be fair neither on the players nor on entrants like Tata, who will only have a limited pool to choose from. At the same time, fringe players, who currently have no offers, are happy to go into the draft.
But even an organisation like the Football Players Association of India (FPAI) who were dead against the draft are now resigned to it. “We are very much against the draft because a player cannot negotiate their salaries or choose their clubs. But there is little we can do at the moment. But we are happy that were able to exert pressure and get the number of foreign players in the starting eleven reduced,” said Cyrus Confectioner, FPAI general manager.
While many clubs are waiting for the rules and regulations to come out before hiring coaches, the uncertainty affects Bengaluru FC the most.
The club has qualified for the Inter-zone play-off semi-finals of the AFC Cup against North Korean club April 25 and is four matches away from repeating their feat of making the tournament’s final.
However they have to submit their final squad by July end, and the longer it takes to finalise, the more their preparations for the tournament will be affected. While the impasse over domestic players continue, club sources told Express that BFC are moving ahead with foreign player recruitment, with coach Albert Roca and his assistant Carlos Cuadrat making plans in Spain.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com