AFC has indicated "unwillingness" to allow new merged league to be a "closed" affair (i.e.without relegation) . They have clearly told AIFF officials to meet directly with FIFA and seek permission from them, also rebuked aiff bosses for waking up so late. AFC won't permit "closed" league themselves, will allow only if FIFA intervenes.
"Closed" League is only one of the problems with ISL. 1) AFC should give deadline for ISL Franchises to follow AFC/FIFA Guidelines. 2) Audits and ownerships (Fake + Real) should also be submitted to AFC. 3) AFC should also say something about this shambolic everyday match system. 4) Relegation and Promotion will kill the present system where all the franchises are those which have bought there way into the league.
Good on the AFC if they have told off the AIFF for waking up to late. Something should have been done years ago but it was delay after delay after delay. I know IMG-Reliance were part of the delays but show some balls AIFF. Agree with @munna219777 If this whole thing goes through then a deadline should be set for the league to fix those issues.
Not surprised they are "unwilling" with the promotion/relegation system not in place. The AFC is a total "do it like Europe" federation but if the Aussies can make it work and both the A-League and MLS can get through FIFA then lets see. They will probably be concerned at first with the closed idea but hopefully they actually take into consideration whatever the AIFF (and IMG-Reliance etc) have to say as they are the ones running it in the end.
Doubt that would make sense economically for the league and also doubt FIFA would approve something as unbalanced. I can see a resolution being made in which promotion/relegation is put into place after 2-4 years. AIFF (IMG-Reliance) will probably use the contracts to say they can't do pro/rel right now and that League One will be used to help the other clubs financially "strengthen" before pro/rel is added.
As I always said, Relegation - Promotion will work only if the Second tier has a comparable financial and playing structure to the top tier. Otherwise, the top tier club will die and the promoted second tier club will struggle in the top tier.
Are the AIFF officials really that dumb? They can simply play the MLS and A league card infront of FIFA and get the ISL sanctioned...and what is wrong with AFC? They are allowing a closed league in a world cup playing nation , Australia and being hypocritical about it when it comes to India... Ridiculous !
The AFC have always been critical of Australia when it comes to that. They have never made it mandatory that they have pro/rel but they don't like it. I could be wrong but I believe that the creation of the NPLs under the A-League and the creation of the FFA Cup is what made the AFC look away since those two competitions helped lower league teams.
As for FIFA, they don't care. All FIFA cares about is money. Show them the money, they will back off.
@atuljg Bang on! With the way the ISL right now, best way to institute promotion/relegation would probably be through slow expansion of the ISL and slowly growing League One teams and then sometime in the future creating a new second division, relegate 4-6 teams from ISL and promote 2-4 from LO and go the J. League route which is basically that ISL and the new D2 league have free pro/rel but there is no pro/rel between the new D2 league and League One unless a team passes licensing criteria and other things.
Only problem is that I doubt the AIFF would do that.
More than pro/rel, the ownership of the league is the bigger issue. Ideally, IMG-R shouldn't have any say in the form the national league is going to take. But this is an issue being skirted by all.
The biggest reason why ISL needs to be closed is the LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE.Take a look at I-league clubs.How many of these clubs have proper facilities for football players of International calibre?We need to improve infrastructure of the places where these clubs are based before opening the door for entry to a league that hosts some of the big names of footballing world!
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Source - Sports Program in Bengali News channel
Not surprised they are "unwilling" with the promotion/relegation system not in place. The AFC is a total "do it like Europe" federation but if the Aussies can make it work and both the A-League and MLS can get through FIFA then lets see. They will probably be concerned at first with the closed idea but hopefully they actually take into consideration whatever the AIFF (and IMG-Reliance etc) have to say as they are the ones running it in the end.
We've had so many examples in I league itself.
As for FIFA, they don't care. All FIFA cares about is money. Show them the money, they will back off.
@atuljg Bang on! With the way the ISL right now, best way to institute promotion/relegation would probably be through slow expansion of the ISL and slowly growing League One teams and then sometime in the future creating a new second division, relegate 4-6 teams from ISL and promote 2-4 from LO and go the J. League route which is basically that ISL and the new D2 league have free pro/rel but there is no pro/rel between the new D2 league and League One unless a team passes licensing criteria and other things.
Only problem is that I doubt the AIFF would do that.