Decision on longevity of ISL by March: AIFF

Mumbai: India’s successful hosting of the first-ever Fifa event got a boost after Bank of Baroda became the first national supporter for the Under-17 World Cup, India 2017. The mega football event slated to be held from October 6 to 28, 2017 could have total six national supporters.

“It was not easy to organise the Under-16 AFC Championship in Goa as we didn’t have any support and rains made it more difficult. But in hosting Under-17 World Cup we have support of Bank of Baroda on board, 10 months prior to event, which will help us a great deal,” tournament director Javier Ceppi said.

Aiff secretary Kushal Das was confident that the India Under-17 team will be competitive and a few young Indian stars will be born. “Our aim is to encourage youth. I am hopeful our team will be competitive and create a few stars. I am sure some of those young players will play in Europe,” Das said.

However, the tournament will be held at a time (in October) when Aiff’s new supported product Indian Super League started over the last three seasons but Das said Aiff has a plan in place.

“We are trying to restructure Indian football where the ISL will be longer. There will be League 1 and League 2. Next season everything will start after the Under-17 Cup, if everything works according to plan,” Das said.

“It is definitely a complicated matter but we have to come with a decision by February-March 2017. We have formed a task force with AFC with a representative from Fifa to help us guide on the issue,” he added.

Some of the main difficulties before Aiff are reluctance of many I-League clubs for any such move.

“The problem is there are certain aspects of ISL or top leagues, that need to be followed. If you have seen the ISL the spectator attendance have been fantastic and again I know some of the clubs will object to that and some of the legacy clubs have not been able to create the fan base and that’s a fact. Hence, we are allowing them to participate in the next league, make a sustainable model for them, create a fan base and come up,” Das informed.

Also quality foreign ISL players, including Mumbai City FC marquee player Diego Forlan, have admitted that short leagues in India are more suited to players like him. “Some marquee players were telling me that they travel more than they train so it doesn’t make sense. They should be training and then play weekend matches, that’s the format worldwide. We will have to get those younger marquee players who are willing to play in India for a longer time,” he said.