Kushal Das says I-League failed to be a commercially viable product

AT THE FOOTBALL MOVEMENT CONFERENCE, along with Indian top football officials, there was also the representation from Premier League.

The conference was held in Mumbai today morning and on various topics on Indian Football. The AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das was among others present in the panel of discussing the commercials sustainability of Indian football.

Das on the topic, talked about India's top division league system, I-League has not yielded the expected results. He stated,

"Despite of best efforts, ILeague suffered and did not create the outcome we expected."

Nurturing football from its nascent stages was affirmed to take precedence in developing football. Das stressed on the focus on grassroots by saying,

"Grassroots will remain our main objective to promote"

The I-League has not been the favourite child of the AIFF as it shows by the way the federation has not been actively involved in promoting and developing in most active manner. The treatment met out some of the widely popular clubs and failure to address the grievances of those who voiced their opinion. On I-league not being the monetary returns giver over the years, put the apex national tournament in the country down by saying,

"We wanted a product which is commercially viable. I-League failed to do that"

In a strong statement that somehow puts the ultimate responsibility of the failed product back on him and the federation.

After putting down the state of Indian Football, Das made another statement by trying to level it out seeing the potential of the sport in the future. He added,

"I am very optimistic with sustainability of Indian Football but there are certain challenges"

Lots has been spoken about having a single long running league system and the merger of the I-league and the Indian Super League but the air of speculation has not end date to see the final remodeled structure in the country. Adding more fuel to the widely understood no promotion-relegation fire, Das said the promotion-relegation might not be there to start off with but will be eventually implemented. Das further said,

"We are looking for a 6 month league with Promotion and relegation"

Here you can see him interacting with attendees and answer questions regarding Indian football...