Follow TOI Sports on Twitter >>

@TOISportsNews

PANAJI: Indian footballers will have to look for alternative careers if the trend of top clubs shutting shop and All India Football Federation ( AIFF ) discontinuing tournaments, continues.Several of India's leading footballers are out of business at the moment. I-League clubs are reluctant to sign any footballer because India's premier football competition starts only in January, 2016. Until last season, India's top clubs competed in the Federation Cup ­ a league-cum-knockout competition involving India's best 16 teams ­ but the AIFF in its own infinite wisdom thought it best to discontinue with the competition this season. To add to their dismay, there are just two major all-India tournaments left for the clubs, both are by invitation and on a down-slide ­ the Durand Cup and the IFA Shield.For now, there is only the Indian Super League ( ISL ) which starts next month but the cash-rich league can accommodate only about 100-odd Indian players. Each of the eight franchisees need to have a minimum of 13 domestic players on their roll.From amongst India's top clubs, Pune FC and Bharat FC are having second thoughts about continuing in the I-League and have not signed a single player. Mumbai FC have not started training and Royal Wahingdoh FC have closed their doors to new players, showing faith in the younger lot that has remained loyal to them.In Goa, Salgaocar Sports Club and Sporting Clube de Goa are in no hurry to strengthen their squads with only the Goa Pro League to compete. Salgaocar, in fact, had an open trial where, despite no publicity, 85 players from across the country showed up.Salgaocar FC coach Malky Thomson had a good look at the players for more than a week and then handpicked four players: the most expensive player cost the club Rs 3 lakh for a 10-month deal! As for Sporting Clube, they picked up four academy players for a monthly salary of approximately Rs 20,000.Footballers are a pampered lot in India and are used to collecting handsome salaries. The demand from a plethora of clubs was always more than the supply. Until a couple of years ago, clubs had no hesitation in offering a top-50 footballer annual contracts worth approximately Rs 25-30 lakhs.Now, Indian footballers ­ with fear of unemployment looming large ­ are grabbing anything that is offered to them. For example, four Mumbai FC players ­ Climax Lawrence, Valeriano Rebello, Kunal Sawant and Nicholas Rodrigues ­ turned up in Goa to play for relatively unknown Tuff Laxmi Prasad SC in the domestic league. They will pick up a fraction of the salaries that they dictated in the past.Even someone like Beevan D'Mello, who last year played for Sporting Clube in the I-League and had a base price of Rs 24 lakh (for four months) in the ISL domestic draft, settled for a Rs 4 lakh annual contract with Dempo. Ditto with Kerala Blasters striker Milagres Gonsalves who will pocket a similar amount.“These players are lucky, at least they have a club,” said one senior club official. His concern was for several other players who have neither found favour with ISL franchisees or I-League clubs. Biswajit Saha is just one of many dreadful examples. He was part of Atletico de Kolkata's ISL winning side last season and is more than a decent left-back. But after ATK turned their back on the defender despite signing a valid contract ­ he has nowhere to go.The ISL auction in July saw 10 footballers being sold for astronomical packages. Someone like Rino Anto , with a base price of Rs 17 lakh, was picked by the Kolkata franchise for Rs 90 lakh, but spare a thought for the 72 players who remained unsold at the domestic draft that followed. Many of these on-loan players went back to their parent club; half of them are still jobless, though, and with the Calcutta Football League (Group A) ending on Wednesday , the agonizing hunt for employment will start all over again. “I understand there is a concern. That is why we are working towards a solution,“ said AIFF president Praful Patel .The “solution“, in the words of Patel, is to have just one league ­ integrate both the ISL and I-League into one long competition ­ but that is easier said than done.Until that happens ­ and it could so easily not happen at all ­ Indian footballers will remain on tenterhooks.