Chennai City FC are applying for direct entry to I-League 2016-17

NEWS HAS EMERGED that Chennai City FC, a local league club from the Tamil Nadu capital, has picked up bidding documents from AIFF for a direct entry into the I-League as a corporate club.

The move was slightly surprising because the club, one of the oldest in the city, has not yet played in the 2nd Division League, and a direct leap to top tier appears too sudden for a club that appeared to have adopted a slow progression approach to ease itself into the national professional football circuit.

While having a club from Chennai is an encouraging prospect for I-League, given the impending merger with ISL it raises questions whether taking on a corporate club from a city designated to Chennaiyin FC makes sense at this point. Complications also may arise from the fact that the owners of Chennai City FC also own the Chennai franchise in Premier Futsal, a private tournament unaffiliated with AIFF and something both the Federation and their commercial partners IMG-Reliance disapprove of.

But the move has raised curiosity about how the I-League season is shaping up to be. There was a feeling of surprise among fans when Ozone FC did not bid for a corporate entry, and later AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das said at an event that the league's 2016-17 season will be played with 9 clubs; which does not leave too much room for new corporate entries.

The two other clubs that have already applied for a direct entry are FC Bardez from Goa and Minerva AFC from Punjab.