AIFF-proposed Champions League idea may be scrapped; could be changed to a knockout tournament

UNCERTAINITY LOOMS over the new stucture of Indian football whether Indian Super League or I-League will be the official league of the country.

Speculations of various proposals from the AIFF officials are doiing rounds. The latest one says, the recently floated idea of having four teams each from I-league and ISL will enter into a fresh league tournament to decide an Asian Competition slot (AFC Cup or AFC Champions League) to the winner and runner-up.This tournament is nothing but the Federation Cup with a different format. We have seen earlier AIFF using the Fed Cup to complete the minimum-match criterion for clubs to be eligible for the AFC Cup. Last year the Fed Cup was a home-away format and this year the AIFF decided to shrink the competetion to a single and neutral-venue league format with matches in scorching almost everyday leading to fatigue and less-than full potential games.

The proposed long Champions League after the regular season got over, would pose various problems for the AIFF including problems like time-constraints to accomodate the national team schedule. Therefore, the league format might be turned into a knockout Cup tournament. With no offical announcements from the AIFF, everything in Indian domestic football remains anybody's guess.

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