Attending the fourth meeting of this committee, which has been set up with the aim of professionalising football in the country, were the All India Football Federation (AIFF) chief Praful Patel, who is the Deputy Chairman, along with FIFA Executive Committee member Manilal Fernando, prominent Indian club owners and officials.
The key proposals, which were deliberated upon and recommended to the AIFF, were: composition of the I-League, timeline to set up the I-League 2011-2012 season, the registration of I-League clubs and the I-League organisation.
At the outset, Bin Hammam said the commitment of the members and the AIFF was spurring professional football in India.
“I believe that since we last met we have achieved a lot,” said Bin Hammam. “I appreciate your commitment and dedication because without this no improvement can take place. In my capacity as AFC President, I am very much committed.
“Without India there can be no football in Asia. We will work hand in hand to achieve our goal.”
The AFC chief also referred to India’s participation in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011.
“Another evidence was the participation of the Indian team in the AFC Asian Cup in Doha,” said Bin Hammam.
“We were happy to see the progress of the team and though we need a lot more the appearance of the Asian Cup was not a bad one. It was an encouraging one. It made the people think of how much India is capable of giving to Asia.”
A thorough and wide-ranging inspection of all I-League clubs was conducted last year by an AFC Professional Football Project Special Mission Team, and the members, after discussing the report presented to them, approved the composition of the I-League first division with 10 clubs that have met the criteria and decided to give a waiver to four clubs, which have failed to meet the requirements.
The 10 clubs, which complied with the I-League criteria, are: 1. McDowell Mohun Bagan (Salt Lake Stadium), 2. Kingfisher East Bengal (Salt Lake Stadium), 3. Chirag United SC (Barasat Stadium - To improve the stadium facilities by July), 4. Viva Kerala(Jawahar Stadium- to improve the stadium facilities by July), 5. Mumbai FC (Cooperage Football Stadium - to improve the stadium facilities by July), 6. JCT Mills FC(Guru Nanak Stadium), 7. Pune FC (Ballewadi Stadium), 8. Churchill Brothers SC (Nehru Stadium), 9. Dempo SC (Nehru Stadium), 10. Salgaocar SC (Nehru Stadium).
The members also recommended that three clubs - ONGC (Cooperage Football Stadium), Air India (Cooperage Football Stadium) and HAL Bangalore (Karnataka FA Stadium) – who failed to meet the ‘commercial entity’ criteria, and also AIFF XI (Ambedkar Stadium) be given a grace period of one season in the first division on the condition that if any one of them wins the I-League or finishes second or third, they will not be eligible to represent India in the AFC Champions League.
It was further suggested that the top two second division teams would be eligible for promotion to the first division only if they satisfied the professional league criteria. In case they fail to meet the criteria then there would be no relegation of any club from the first division, which would continue with the same 14 teams.
The members agreed to a proposal that the deadline for the clubs to improve their stadiums would be July 2011, following which another inspection of the clubs would be undertaken in July-September 2011. Thereafter, the I-League’s 2011 season would kick off on September 2011.
The committee proposed that the I-League Regulations should be revised to ban the registration and participation of I-League clubs in other leagues other than the I-League and that I-League club players should not be allowed to register with any other club other than I-League clubs.
With all the matches at present being organised by the local football association, the committee proposed that the clubs should start implementing the home match operations, including and not limited to ticket sales, match operations, and security.