CHENNAI: After months of uncertainty, multiple court hearings and several meetings, the Indian Super League (ISL) is set to begin on February 14. The clubs who were reluctant to play suddenly had a change of heart and have decided to complete the 91 matches they are slotted to play in single home and away basis this truncated season. What seems interesting that the ISL was supposed to be played between 13 clubs but with Odisha FC joining the fray, the number went up the 14. This was possible after a meeting between the sports ministry and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and ISL clubs. The ISL will run by a board.
One man sounded much more relaxed and relieved is AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, who has had sleepless nights ever since the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the commercial arm of AIFF in charge of conducting ISL, did not want to extend the Master Right Agreement (MRA) due to various reasons. The contract ended in December 8 last year.
Chaubey spoke from Delhi about how the AIFF managed to convince the club through dialogue. Of course, the sports ministry had also done their bit. The season will be until June 15, but he felt that it depends on how the fixtures are going to be set, so it can be finished before that.
The AIFF chief elaborated on what went into the final strides towards the finish line. "You must be aware that since we had our annual general meeting on December 20 and the constitution has few articles that caused hindrances for bidders to take the Request for Proposal (RFP) even though four prospective bidders participated and raised 234 questions," he said. "People who are following football, they know where the challenges are. Having said this, in the general body, I have proposed a nine-member AIFF-ISL coordination committee, which had five members from clubs and four from the AIFF. We wanted to give clubs a majority say on this discussion and that was mandated until December 29," he explained.
Chaubey said that the committee had around six meetings between December 22 and 29 and came up with various proposals that included the format of the league. "The league has been discussed and zeroed in two formats. One was a two conference — east and west conference — and another was home and away. A rough budget too was calculated by this committee." The AIFF chief said that the parent football body had an executive committee meeting on Tuesday to ensure there are no procedural lapses or gaps before finalising the leagues. "The constitution should be respected as directed by the SC and we did not want any legal hassle," he said. "We discussed what can be done and what cannot be as mandated by the constitution and placed them before the clubs." The AIFF also discussed about financial contribution as well. "The financial contribution of 40 per cent of the league's pool was committed by the AIFF and the central pool has been capped to Rs 25 crore. Therefore, AIFF will contribute Rs 10 crore. I am sure the entire country would be eager to find an outcome to this and I am happy and thankful to the club owners for their cooperation and support. Collectively we were able to announce the date today," he said.
This arrangement will be for for this year's ISL and the AIFF has offered financial relief and moratorium to the clubs thereby which they can defer league fees payment of Rs 1 crore to June this year.
The AIFF chief also said that the process took so long because the matter was sub-judiced in the court and they could not have taken any decision unilaterally without the SC's directives. "We could not have taken a decision overnight. The process has to be thorough." He also said that the clubs have their commercial autonomy to find a commercial partner. The AIFF, he said, will not intervene. For now though, it's play football.
ISL teams: Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC, East Bengal FC, FC Goa, SC Delhi FC, Jamshedpur FC, Kerala Blasters FC, Mohammedan SC, Mohun Bagan Super Giant, Mumbai City FC, NorthEast United FC, Odisha FC, Punjab FC.