I-League meeting: Unified league under ISL; 1 club only per city; merger of clubs on the cards

THE I-LEAGUE CORE COMMITTEE will assemble for a crucial meeting later today. The future of I-League and its potential merger with Indian Super League is expected to be one of the main issues to be discussed.

While a lot of the details about the merger is yet to be chalked out, it appears that the trend is leaning towards having the new league, which will retain the ISL brand name, maintain a city-based franchise model, at least temporarily. Exceptions are supposed to be made in cases like Kolkata where supporter bases for multiple clubs already exist. The intention is to ensure that the league spreads out over the country instead of being concentrated in certain pockets.

This approach, however, creates confusion over the fate of cities like Mumbai (Mumbai FC in I-League, Mumbai City in ISL), Aizawl (Aizawl FC in I-League, Chanmari FC in 2nd Division) and Bangalore (Bengaluru FC in I-League, Ozone FC to enter 2nd Division). Limiting these cities to one club may force the other clubs to close down. There are also talks of mergers between clubs. FC Goa and Dempo are expected to unify, and Pune City and DSK Shivajians are expected to be in talks for the same. Atletico de Kolkata and defending champions Mohun Bagan, too, have lately gotten cosy with each other. 

The 2nd Division League, however, may take a serious hit as the franchise model might render some of its clubs ineligible for a promotion to the top division.

Clubs' closure will also be an issue that will be at the forefront in the meeting. After Pune FC and Bharat FC folded their first teams over the summer, Royal Wahingdoh has also withdrawn their first team from the I-League. This has left the league with just 9 clubs, causing the league season to shorten further, and it is hurting every club. Addressing palpable cloud of insecurity over the league and its clubs' future will be one of the challenges the committee will face in this meeting. 

Certain other technical decisions are also expected to be made. One of them is expected to be mandating that every club must have one Under-22 player on the pitch at all times. This has already prompted certain clubs to sign a bunch of players from India U-23 and U-19 squads. 

There is also the small matter of the Salt Lake Stadium, which is undergoing massive renovations in preparation to host the 2017 World Cup U-17 and as a result, has decided to close its doors to the two major I-League clubs in the city, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan (while continuing accomodateISL's Atletico de Kolkata). This has created a problem because the Kolkata Derby matches and Mohun Bagan's matches in AFC Champions League / AFC Cup are expected to draw high turnouts that no other stadium in the city can accomodate. There are talks of shifting the Derby out of the city to Siliguri, and a final decision on the matter can also be reached today.

The I-League is scheduled to start from January 9th.