JOIN USHASC handed lifeline by AFC
“The committee has decided to accept all the 14 teams in the next edition of the Indian professional league. However, there are four teams (HAL, ONGC, Air India and AIFF XI) who have just not met one criterion for commercial entity. The eligibility for these four teams has been extended by one year,” AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam told reporters here Thursday.
“We are of the idea that professional football will be commercial football and it will help the clubs to sustain for a longer period of time.”
Asked whether AIFF is trying to bend the rules for these clubs, Praful Patel sitting alongside AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam, explained: “The teams like ONGC, Air India, HAL are all public sector enterprises. Also they have fulfilled all the other criteria for being eligible to play in professional league.
“Since the licensing requires the clubs to be commercial entities and the owners need to be identified, there are some legal and legislative hurdles for these government teams. Therefore these four clubs have been granted extension.”
But Patel also had a word of caution for these teams that this will be the last chance that they are getting in order to set their house in order. “The FIFA and AFC guidelines are supreme. So if they don’t adhere to the norms then they won’t be able to play in the 2012-13 I-League. You have to understand that if any of these team qualify for the AFC Cup or AFC Champions League, they won’t be able to participate.”
Last year Bin Hammam had asked the AIFF to come down hard on erring clubs, who have failed several deadlines to meet the club licensing criteria.
But this time around, Patel, who is the union heavy industries minister, appealed to the AFC president to give some more time to the three public sector undertakings and Indian Arrows to convert themselves into commercial holdings. It is learnt that on Wednesday night Patel told Hammam that it was very difficult to covert government-run departmental clubs into a commercial entity overnight.
The ad-hoc committee also suggested that the top two second division teams would be eligible for promotion to the first division only if they fulfil 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 committee also extended the deadline for the clubs to improve their infrastructure by July before the final inspection in July-September. The I-League will kick off in September.