ISL reportedly set to drop marquee player rule and reduce the number of foreign players

THE INDIAN SUPER LEAGUE has taken another step towards becoming a legitimate professional competition by dropping the mandatory 'Marquee player' signing requirement placed upon franchises.

Under this rule, the ISL franchises were made to sign at least one player with a name of "international repute" who had played in tournaments of global importance like the World Cup, a country-based continental championship or club competitions of repute like the UEFA Champions League. 

This requirement saw the ISL teams, unable to bear the experience or attract the interest of current players of that stature, often opt for players who were past their prime like Robert Pires, Alessandro del Piero, Nicolas Anelka and many others. Some franchises like Chennaiyin FC and Delhi Dynamos sometimes chose to employ the likes of Marco Materazzi and Roberto Carlos in a player-coach dual role (Mumbai City did the same with Anelka) to get circumvent the marquee player role and/or get more value out of the premium prices that they were paying for those players.

And often the performances of these players did not match up to the expectations and investment of the franchises, while other players with smaller payscales performed much better.

As a result, IMG-Reliance have reportedly told franchises that the marquee player is no longer mandatory, while the teams are free to make a marquee signing if they wish.

The 'marquee player' rule was experimented with in the I-League as well but it had little effect. It seems the ISL organizers are coming to the same conclusion and moving towards making the tournament a comprehensive team-based competition instead of trying to use the names of yesteryear stars as a marketing gimmick.

A slow change is apparently underway in the number of foreign players in the tournament as well. Each team in ISL 2017-18 will likely have 8 foreign players in the squad, of which 5 can be on the pitch at any time. This is a small step taken by the tournament towards meeting the AFC-prescribed limit of 4 foreign players per squad which the I-League honours. This comes after constant backlash from the Football Players' Association of India (FPAI) who have held ISL responsible for increased players' unemployment in India, due to the low number of Indian players it has had room for so far.