The All India Football Federation is making a mockery of its own administrative decisions vis-a-vis Pailan Arrows.
The team was shifted from Kochi and based in Kolkata. Pailan Arrows was considered to be the development side of the AIFF and which would provide players of quality for the national team. Since it was their own team, they decided not to relegate Pailan Arrows for three years from the I-League to ensure that their players remained in elite company.
Now the AIFF has purportedly decided to disband the team and reduce the I-League to a 15-team affair from next season.
If the AIFF cannot even decide and stick to the format and the number of teams that will play, what else can they be expected to do to improve football in the country?
The idea to have it on a zonal basis is good but not with the present set-up. They must convert the age-old National championship for the Santosh Trophy into the National League and then play it on a zonal basis. A region based league involving the entire country is what is needed for India as soccer is played all over. Club culture exists only in certain parts and a club-based national league is bound to fail.
Once every state is involved in the national league for the Santosh Trophy, club soccer can go on as before where teams had tournaments by the dozens to take part, earn money and keep going. Now they are entirely dependent on only the I-League and the Federation Cup in the entire season.
“They are now more keen on conducting the new tournament being sponsored by IMG-Reliance combine. They want every club to release five players,” said a representative of the Indian Professional Football Clubs Association (IPFCA) who did not want to be identified.
Asked how players can walk in and out of clubs in a season without following FIFA’s compulsory online Transfer Matching System, he said, “Oh yes, the TMA must be applied. But they are trying to use their money power and clout to get special transfer for players in India. Unfortunately for them FIFA itself is abolishing the special transfer slot from the 2013-14 season onwards.”
“The question of clubs getting a holiday from relegation was also discussed but not decision on it has been taken as yet,” he added.
“We are going to conduct a new tournament for all the I-League clubs in the 3-month gap that we have. So the IPFCA is all set to wring in major changes in the way the game is governed in India,” he signed off.
Right from 1996-97, the league was proposed to be named as the I-League as was made known in the then AIFF secretary P P Lakshmanan’s preliminary report. But as the then president Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and Lakshmanan had differences, ‘Priyo da’ decided to call it the National Football League. But it was given the originally proposed name in 2007-08. But not just the name, the format has undergone changes like clubs changing away colours.
