Institutional League likely to start from January 2024, top two teams to get Federation Cup berth

The top-two finishers in the proposed Institutional League, which is likely to start in January next year, will get direct entry in the domestic premier knock-out tournament, the Federation Cup in 2024 , the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Thursday.

The bid document (Request for Proposal) for the Institutional League, which has attracted interest from some of the country's most well-known institutional teams, is set to be released in early September, while the eligible sides are expected to be announced by mid-October.

After a pre-bid meeting with 25 Institutional League teams here on Thursday, the AIFF has set a base participation fee for the Institutional League at Rs 10 lakh annually.

The applicants will qualify for a benefit of up to Rs five lakh on the base participation fee which would depend on their legacy evaluation score.

"The winners and runners-up of this Institutional League would be granted direct entry into the 2024 Federation Cup, whereas the promotion-relegation system will come into play in case of multiple divisions," the AIFF said in a release.

The winners of the domestic knock-out tournament will get a chance to feature in play-offs for continental club tournaments.

The objective of the Institutional League is to merge institutional football with the Indian football structure, adding value to the competitive national setup.

The call on the event's format will be taken after consultation with the participating sides.

The participation is open to organisations including, but not limited to, the following -- Private Corporations, Ministerial Units, Public Sector Units, Police/Defence/Paramilitary Forces (Unit-Level), State Departments and Railways (Division-level), the AIFF stated.

The bids will be subject to a two-step evaluation process -- Technical Evaluation (to assess the preparedness of the applicant to participate in the competition) and Legacy Evaluation (to determine historical contribution of the applicant to Indian football).

Technical credits will be used to determine the applicant's seeding for the competition, while Legacy credits will be used to determine the concession that will be awarded to the applicant on the base participation fee.

The 25 teams that attended the meeting were Aeronautical Development Establishment (Bengaluru), Air India (Mumbai), ASC Centre South (Bengaluru), Bank of Baroda (Vadodara), BSF North Bengal (Siliguri), BSF Punjab, Chennai Customs, CRPF (Punjab), CSIR -- National Institute of Oceanography (Goa), Dravstream Tech Pvt Ltd (Mumbai), Employee State Insurance Corporation (Chennai), Employee State Insurance Corporation (New Delhi), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (Bengaluru), Indian Navy (Kochi), Indian Railways (New Delhi), IndiaPost Karnataka (Bengaluru), JCT (Punjab), Karnataka Police (Bengaluru), Oil India Ltd -- Assam Field HQ (Duliajan), PDC Services (Alchemy Football) (Bengaluru), PFA Organization (Haryana), Punjab Police, Reserve Bank of India (Mumbai), Reserve Bank of India (Bengaluru) and Services Sports Control Board (New Delhi).

The meeting was held under AIFF's Deputy Secretary General Satyanarayan M.