CHENNAI: After days of speculation over whether there will be a unified league or the ISL and I-League will co-exist next season, it seems that the All India Football Federation ( AIFF ) has finally arrived at a decision. It is learnt that both the leagues are set to continue running simultaneously in the 2018-19 season.

What has aided AIFF’s decision is the fact that there will be no addition to ISL teams next season. ISL promoters Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) are unwilling to invite bids for more teams this season after expanding the league from eight to 10 teams last year. It effectively means that Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal will not be a part of ISL next season after they had refused to pay a franchise fee of Rs 15 crore approximately and didn’t submit the bid documents last year.

A source close to the developments informed that FSDL might run into legal troubles if they include Bagan and East Bengal without their bid documents. “All the 10 teams in the league have agreed to the financial and technical terms before joining the league. So they might raise valid questions if we include Bagan and East Bengal without their bid documents. We might also run into legal problems. We don’t want that. Had the two clubs submitted the documents, we could have still thought of a way of including them. But our hands are tied now. We are not going to issue bid documents this year. So it will only be in the 2019-20 season that these two can think of joining ISL,” the source told TOI on Wednesday.

While ISL remains the more coveted league featuring all the top Indian and foreign players, the I-League too has seen a surge in spectators’ interest this season. The average attendance in I-League rose from last season’s 6,500 spectators per match to 10,210 fans this season, registering a 58% increase in in-stadia attendance.

Upbeat with these figures, AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said that the federation is in no rush to merge the two leagues. “We are still having a lot of discussions with AFC and FIFA. There are contractual issues, financial issues to be looked at. We will then get a report from AFC on how to merge the two leagues. It is better to take a right decision rather than a hasty one. So we are in no rush to merge the two leagues at this stage,” Das told TOI.

