AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: All India Football Federation League Committee met at the AIFF Headquarters in New Delhi today (December 7, 2018). Mr. Subrata Datta, Senior Vice President chaired the meeting while Mr. Souter Vaz, Mr. B.K. Roka and Mr. Chirag Tanna, attended the meeting. Mr. Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF and Mr. Sunando Dhar, CEO, I-League were also present in the meeting.

The committee reviewed submissions made by the various HERO 2nd Division League applicants under the club licensing process. After several deliberations, the committee came to the decision to confirm the participation of only the following clubs for Hero 2nd Division League 2018-19:

CLUB STATE Ozone Football Club Karnataka South United FC1 Karnataka Fateh Hyderabad AFC Telangana New Barrackpore Rainbow FC West Bengal Mohammedan Sporting West Bengal Chhinga Veng FC Mizoram Lonestar Kashmir Jammu & Kashmir Hindustan Football Club Delhi ARA FC Gujarat

Tiddim Road Athletic Union FC has been granted time to complete club licensing process in the next 3 days, commencing tomorrow. The committee granted the extra time considering the recent issues with the Manipur League, which the club had no control upon and also acknowledged the fact that the club had participated in last season’s Hero 2nd Division League and qualified for the Final Round.

The committee also approved the participation of the following reserve teams of Indian Super League in Hero 2nd Division League 2018-19:- ATK, Jamshedpur FC, Bengaluru FC, FC Goa, Kerala Blasters FC and Chennaiyin FC.

As per the relevant regulations of the competition, reserve teams can only participate in the preliminary round of the tournament. The Hero 2nd Division League is scheduled to start from the first week of January 2018 and go on till mid-April.

It was also unanimously decided by the committee, that teams from Hero I-League and Hero Indian Super League and Hero 2nd Division League will have to undergo the AIFF Academy Accreditation process to be eligible to participate in the Hero Youth Leagues from the season 2019-20 onwards.

The Committee also unanimously decided on the new names for all the age group LEAGUE tournaments of AIFF. Under this change, “U-13 Youth League” from now on will be known as “Hero Sub Junior League”, the “U-15 Youth League” from now on will be known as “Hero Junior League” and “U-18 Youth League” from now on will be known as “Hero Elite League”.

The Committee also decided to hold the Hero Super Cup between last week of March till mid of April 2019.