BENGALURU FC DIRECTOR Parth Jindal has welcomed East Bengal into the ISL fold and repeated his support for an open league system in Indian football, with promotion-relegation across all divisions.
Jindal, who chose to take Bengaluru FC from I-League into the Indian Super League in 2017, congratulated BFC's old rivals East Bengal when they signed a new investor with the express intention of joining the ISL this season. He had done the same when Mohun Bagan announced their ISL participation earlier this year.
Although BFC has been a part of ISL's franchise system that does not have a promotion-relegation system, Parth Jindal has repeatedly spoken about the importance of an open league system that gives independent clubs with smaller budgets the chance to compete at the highest level. Today, he repeated his stance once again.
Being a pro-open league voice inside the ISL system, Jindal played an active role in backing the AFC/FIFA roadmap for restructuring Indian football that was finally adopted last year, paving the way for ISL to have promotion-relegation with the lower divisions in the future.
With the likes of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, who also have been staunch supporters of open leagues and played in such a system till last season, a phase shift seems to be occurring in the mainstream of Indian football with the consensus rapidly moving towards open football.