Haha, my hope is 10 teams to start (wouldn't be against 2 teams but only if those 2 teams were not from I-League but just new sides from Hyderabad, Punjab, or Ahmedabad etc.). Get rid of Atletico de Kolkata and "merge" them into one of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan... add the other Kolkata club that ATK does not merge with and then add Bengaluru FC.
Lower the foreigners from 11 to 7... 1 marquee, 1 Asian, and 5 other players. 5 on the pitch at once.
League One with 10 teams as well and basically work from there to establish promotion/relegation one day in a decade or so.
10 teams is too few for a 7 month league (2017/18 edition will be 5 month affair) ATK is ATK till ATM is there. If they withdraw than there is no ATK. So, I hope better sense prevail and Goenka buys stake in MB and ATK merges to become MB. Also EB gets some heavy weight sponsors or may be SRK and get in ISL. Add to it BFC, a team from Punjab and may be Anglian ppl pump in money for SLFC to join the bandwagon. 12 teams will be ideal.
We can do 10 teams for now. 27 games easily done then top 6 get into the finals. 1st and 2nd place teams gain automatic entry into the semi-finals and the 3rd to 6th place teams go into an "elimination series". 1-leg elimination series (hosted by higher seed), 2-leg semi-finals, 1-leg final at higher seed (or 2-leg with 2nd leg hosted by higher seed).
Say we do this for the 2018-19 season (first season after the U17 World Cup) and start in October 2018. Season would start 6 October 2018 and then end 6 April 2019. We could then have the elimination series on the weekend of the 13 April, 1st leg of semi-finals on weekend of 20 April, 2nd leg on weekend of 27 April, and then the finals on 4 May and/or 11 May. That is not even taking into account weekday matches, the potential of a "break" during the 2019 AFC Asian Cup (depending on if India qualifies), FIFA international breaks etc.
12 teams would make things iffy honestly. Play each team twice, you only get 22 games, play three times and you get 33 games, and play four times and we get 44 matches.
I would expand to 12 teams by 2020 (maybe divide into conferences of 6 to help with scheduling) and stay there for 2-3 seasons before going to 14 and making things simple (2 games each, 26 matches) and then 16 (30 matches), and finally 18 (34) before finally opening the league to promotion/relegation (relegate 4-6 and promote 4-6 from League One/expansion for 2nd Division) and continue from there etc. etc.
Also keeping in mind other things such as how much percentage of the sponsorship pool will be divided among the teams, how much interest there is in the league, and also the player pool.
I think the player pool right now is a lot better for 10 teams than 12. The merged league will mean more spots for Indians per team. ISL teams don't have academies so they can't fill there rosters with youngsters, they have to rely on the player pool available. Also with Bengaluru FC entering the league (hopefully), their players will stay with them, same with East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, which will open even more spots among other ISL teams since a lot of ISL teams have players who are on loan from BFC, MB, and EB.
In a shocking incident, it has come to public knowledge that the permission given by the state authorities to FC Goa to hold the match on 30th October was withdrawn.
It was only after some people who are on the rolls of the corrupt casino group- Deltin intervened that the permission was granted.
Two points to be noted are
1) The FC Goa COO - Rahul Rodrigues is incompetent and had earlier goofed up in Salgaocar Sports Club as well as when organising the Police Cup.It is no surprise that he goofed up again.
2) The Deltin Casino group has been doing a lot of illegal activities in Goa and know how to run things the corrupt way.
@ArsenalFan700 why make it so complicated, 22 matches in League and than Knock out style Cup competition. Also AFC Cup /ACL committments and international break will complete the season.
Comments
Lower the foreigners from 11 to 7... 1 marquee, 1 Asian, and 5 other players. 5 on the pitch at once.
League One with 10 teams as well and basically work from there to establish promotion/relegation one day in a decade or so.
Say we do this for the 2018-19 season (first season after the U17 World Cup) and start in October 2018. Season would start 6 October 2018 and then end 6 April 2019. We could then have the elimination series on the weekend of the 13 April, 1st leg of semi-finals on weekend of 20 April, 2nd leg on weekend of 27 April, and then the finals on 4 May and/or 11 May. That is not even taking into account weekday matches, the potential of a "break" during the 2019 AFC Asian Cup (depending on if India qualifies), FIFA international breaks etc.
12 teams would make things iffy honestly. Play each team twice, you only get 22 games, play three times and you get 33 games, and play four times and we get 44 matches.
I would expand to 12 teams by 2020 (maybe divide into conferences of 6 to help with scheduling) and stay there for 2-3 seasons before going to 14 and making things simple (2 games each, 26 matches) and then 16 (30 matches), and finally 18 (34) before finally opening the league to promotion/relegation (relegate 4-6 and promote 4-6 from League One/expansion for 2nd Division) and continue from there etc. etc.
I think the player pool right now is a lot better for 10 teams than 12. The merged league will mean more spots for Indians per team. ISL teams don't have academies so they can't fill there rosters with youngsters, they have to rely on the player pool available. Also with Bengaluru FC entering the league (hopefully), their players will stay with them, same with East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, which will open even more spots among other ISL teams since a lot of ISL teams have players who are on loan from BFC, MB, and EB.