AIFF looks to increase teams in I-League and reduce foreign players

The All India Football Federation AIFF is looking to increase the number of teams in the ILeague and has also received recommendations from its league committee to cap the number of registered foreign players in the squad at five and three in the playing XIThe recommendations were passed during the league committee meeting through video conferencing on MondayThe first thing on the committees agenda was to increase the number of teams in the ILeague for which it was recommended by its members that bids be invited in a tripletier system in order to provide opportunities to aspiring clubs andor investors from various socioeconomic backdrops the AIFF said in a press releaseAlso Read ATK Mohun Bagan eye maiden ISL titleNew Delhi Bengaluru Pune Gurugram Chennai Mumbai Ahmedabad Guwahati and Noida have been identified as the tier1 cities from where potential clubs could bid for a place in the ILeagueTier2 cities for the bids were identified as follows Ranchi Itanagar Jalandhar Ludhiana Phagwara Coimbatore Manjeri Thiruvananthapuram Bhopal and ShillongThe committee also suggested that bids from clubs willing to be based out of tier3 towns be also invitedEntities from any village under the control of panchayats can also come up with bids provided they own a stadium training facilities which are not more than 200km from any domestic airportThe committee recommended that the minimum bid value for potential clubs from tier 1 and 2 should be minimum Rs 5 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively while the same for the tier3 bidders should be minimum Rs 1 croreThe teams with the higher bid value will be given preference of selection and no subsidy will be provided to teams that enter the ILeague for their respective first two seasonsAll teams that come through with bids will have to pay 50 per cent of their respective bid values as participation fee till the year the team plays in the league for a maximum of three yearsWinning bids from tier1 and 2 cities will have relegation immunity for two seasons while the same from tier3 cities will be for one seasonBidders from tier1 cities must have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore those from tier2 towns must have a minimum net worth of Rs 50 crore while the same for tier3 bidders will be Rs 40 croreThe bidders will be evaluated on the supporting documents that they submit based on which a number of criteria points will be awarded to themThe committee also deliberated on the criteria for the number of foreign players allowed in the league and came up with the suggestion that the foreigners quota be reduced in order to allow more Indian players to get opportunities in the Hero ILeague the federation saidIt was recommended that the clubs be allowed to register up to five foreigners in their squad and field a maximum three foreign players in their playing XI It will no more be mandatory suggested the committee for clubs to sign specifically an Asian quota playerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever