Goa Football Association president Churchill Alemao

PANAJI: Indian football will make little or no progress, unless the All India Football Federation (AIFF) implements one league at the earliest, feels Goa Football Association (GFA) president Churchill Alemao .

Indian football is now torn between the Indian Super League (ISL) and I-League. While the I-League was Indian football’s premier league since inception in 1996-97 –earlier National Football League – the AIFF has a new roadmap in place which makes ISL as the top league, while I-League has been relegated to the second-tier.

“We must have one league at the earliest. The current situation of having two leagues is not helping anyone. There are teams with great tradition in I-League, while there are teams with financial muscle in the ISL. We must find a balance,” said Alemao.

Alemao’s own team, Churchill Brothers FC, have won the I-League twice in the past and are now gunning for a hat-trick of titles. That title if achieved this season, though, won’t help much as it will not be until 2023 that the I-League champions can move to the top tier on sporting merit alone.

“The top-tier league needs to have more matches and that can happen only if we have more teams. What’s the point if professional players get only 18 or 20 matches a season? That’s less than half of what established leagues all over the world have. A good league with more teams will help everyone,” said Alemao.

According to the roadmap approved by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), two I-League clubs will be offered entry into the ISL by the end of the 2020-21 season. Currently in the I-League, if you leave out Mohun Bagan who have joined hands with ATK, only East Bengal and Churchill Brothers have history on their side.

Starting with the 2022-23 and 2023-2024 season, the winner of the I-League will stand a chance to be promoted to the ISL with no participation fee, provided it fulfils sporting merit and the AIFF’s club licensing criteria.

