Tier 1 - ISL - 16 teams - 30 matches - No Daily matches make it weekends Friday, Saturday and Sunday and occasionally other days to adjust - Start in September last week end of Monsoon and end it by April
Tier 2 - I-League - 14 Team - 26 Matches - Again no daily matches - Start in Sept end and finish by April
Tier 3 - I-league 2nd Division - 8-10 Teams including B teams divided into groups of 5-6 Zones + Knock Out Round - Start in Nov end by April
Tier 4 - State Elite Divisions - State leagues should run minimum 3-4 months - Include U-20 and U-19 teams of top tier within different divisions - Ideal start time Around Nov/Dec and end by Mar-April
Youth Leagues - U-20, U-18, U-16 and U-14 leagues divided into groups based on 5-6 zones + Knock Out rounds. minimum.
Cup Tournaments - Durand Cup, Federation Cup and Super Cup between winner of ISL and Federation Cup. Keep it beginning of the season or regular if it can fit in calendar - Try to fit maximum teams from all 4 tiers by including knock out qualifiers type matches Zone/Region wise.
What about Santosh Trophy? Players like S. Jayaraj were spotted due to that only. Can we adjust it into our annual football calendar? Also I League 1st and 2nd divisions should have atleast 20 teams each. You can't propose a system where the top league ISL has the maximum teams (16) and it progressively reduces in every lower league (14 for I league, 8 for 2nd division etc). This will create an inverted pyramid! Purpose of lower leagues is to get greater participation from more teams and consequently competitive exposure to greater no. of players. The no. of teams gets gradually reduced as one gets higher up the division as teams are filtered and only good teams climb up the promotion ladder. Best example is the structure of english football leagues.
What i suggested is 8-10 teams in each of the zonal groups of 2nd Division which makes it almost 50 teams including the reserve sides. Also 14 and 16 are realistic numbers considering our AIFF/FSDL cannot afford more than that.
The Blue Tigers have won just one match (against Thailand since May 2019). Of course we have had wonderful results against Qatar and Oman. But there have been disappointments. How do you look back?
Sometimes I get the impression that we have too much opinion of ourselves when it comes to opponents like Afghanistan or Bangladesh. Let me remind you that Afghanistan has allowed Overseas Citizen players to play for the National team. They now have 13 players coming from European leagues. They are competing in Germany, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. They also have two players playing in Australian clubs, and one player in the USA top division. Bangladesh has introduced a 3 + 1 policy – and their league is extremely competitive too.
On the issue of FIFA ranking – believe me, there is no difference or favourites among all the teams that are outside the top 100. There are maybe 9-10 teams left in that group that are still at a low level, nothing more than that. So we need to respect everyone. We are on the path of developing a new young team. We need support and a positive environment for our youngsters to get through .
Is this the right path?
I have repeated myself several times mentioning that the path we are taking will be difficult and sometimes painful. But I know from experience that that's the only right way. Everyone needs to understand the difference between friendly games and qualifiers. We made it clear that we will insist on much stronger opponents in friendlies to help our players gain the necessary experience. Friendly games are always to be used as a part of development and results are less important there. As for the results of the World Cup Qualifiers, I must remind you of the truth – and the numbers speak for themselves.
So Afghan's playing in some 8th division european clubs and bangladesh who were previously struggling to beat india are now better than us and we should be thankful to him that he got us a draw . He is constantly ridiculing previous coaches and their acheivments ,while he hasn't acheived anything with the team .
He has clearly lost the plot.. Now both Stimac and FSDL trying a last ditch effort to save their faces by doing this joke of an interview. Dont expect anything better in the upcoming WC Qualifiers. Stimac has laid down his excuses well.
Also do we need more than 2 foreign players in Ileague as well. We need more players like bidya getting chances. Atleast one top level league where they get 20 games atleast to prove. ILeague clubs should organically grow and invest in youth. It's high time when relegation comes they would be well placed for future as well. Couple of season with no foreigners to save budget is not actually now a crazy idea. Investment in infra and youth development will be something iLeague clubs could do. Even one day ISL shuts shop we will have clubs with structure
Comments
Tier 2 - I-League - 14 Team - 26 Matches - Again no daily matches - Start in Sept end and finish by April
Tier 3 - I-league 2nd Division - 8-10 Teams including B teams divided into groups of 5-6 Zones + Knock Out Round - Start in Nov end by April
Tier 4 - State Elite Divisions - State leagues should run minimum 3-4 months - Include U-20 and U-19 teams of top tier within different divisions - Ideal start time Around Nov/Dec and end by Mar-April
Youth Leagues - U-20, U-18, U-16 and U-14 leagues divided into groups based on 5-6 zones + Knock Out rounds. minimum.
Cup Tournaments - Durand Cup, Federation Cup and Super Cup between winner of ISL and Federation Cup. Keep it beginning of the season or regular if it can fit in calendar - Try to fit maximum teams from all 4 tiers by including knock out qualifiers type matches Zone/Region wise.
Also I League 1st and 2nd divisions should have atleast 20 teams each. You can't propose a system where the top league ISL has the maximum teams (16) and it progressively reduces in every lower league (14 for I league, 8 for 2nd division etc). This will create an inverted pyramid! Purpose of lower leagues is to get greater participation from more teams and consequently competitive exposure to greater no. of players. The no. of teams gets gradually reduced as one gets higher up the division as teams are filtered and only good teams climb up the promotion ladder. Best example is the structure of english football leagues.
The Blue Tigers have won just one match (against Thailand since May 2019). Of course we have had wonderful results against Qatar and Oman. But there have been disappointments. How do you look back?
Sometimes I get the impression that we have too much opinion of ourselves when it comes to opponents like Afghanistan or Bangladesh. Let me remind you that Afghanistan has allowed Overseas Citizen players to play for the National team. They now have 13 players coming from European leagues. They are competing in Germany, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. They also have two players playing in Australian clubs, and one player in the USA top division. Bangladesh has introduced a 3 + 1 policy – and their league is extremely competitive too.
On the issue of FIFA ranking – believe me, there is no difference or favourites among all the teams that are outside the top 100. There are maybe 9-10 teams left in that group that are still at a low level, nothing more than that. So we need to respect everyone. We are on the path of developing a new young team. We need support and a positive environment for our youngsters to get through .
Is this the right path?
I have repeated myself several times mentioning that the path we are taking will be difficult and sometimes painful. But I know from experience that that's the only right way. Everyone needs to understand the difference between friendly games and qualifiers. We made it clear that we will insist on much stronger opponents in friendlies to help our players gain the necessary experience. Friendly games are always to be used as a part of development and results are less important there. As for the results of the World Cup Qualifiers, I must remind you of the truth – and the numbers speak for themselves.