CHENNAI: The proposed "one big league" of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) next season is unlikely to have the current I-League champions Chennai City FC. With I-League CEO Sunando Dhar saying that there will be no promotion and relegation as well, CCFC, like the last two years' champions Aizawl FC and Minerva FC, will have to play in the second tier of Indian football.

Aizawl and Minerva, in the last two years, had protested the idea of a league where they won't be included. But CCFC are unlikely to walk the protest route, given the current circumstances. The club is resigned to the fact that paying Rs 15 crore as entry free for the tournament is beyond them and the Coimbatore-based team is happy to play in the second division.

"We might have won but that doesn't mean we are going to put our hands up and tell AIFF that you can't do this to us. We are not thinking about sitting in a dharna like Aizawl or protest like Minerva. We are happy with where we are. We didn't get into football thinking about playing in the top league. We will play in League 2 if needed. At the end of the day, it will only be a change in name for us," CCFC owner Rohit Ramesh told TOI.

It was the team's coach Akbar Nawas who had said on Saturday after the triumph that he hopes the team would play the top tier next season. But Rohit said their only demand from AIFF is clarity on where they stand. "It's not just about us. All the I-League clubs have invested heavily and they all have the right to know what is going to happen to the tournament," Rohit said.

The CCFC owner, though, said that if they are asked to play in a unified league of 20 clubs, they would be happy to do so. But paying huge franchisee fees "is out of question". "I see no reason why the ISL clubs and I-League clubs can't co-exist. But we are not going to pay franchise fees like the ISL clubs unless the AIFF shows us a roadmap (of how to recover the money). We would rather invest that amount in our infrastructure and youth academy," he said.

Playing in second division might have its own problems, the most important being retaining the core of the team. The players who have done so well to win them the I-League may well be lured away by clubs playing in top division and CCFC can be reduced to a feeder club. "We are absolutely okay with it. We have produced players like M Soosairaj, Nandhakumar who have gone on to play in ISL. The plan is to keep finding new players. This season too, a lot of ISL clubs have already started enquiring about our players. For us, the growth of a player should never stop. If he feels that he will be better off in another club and our coach doesn't have a problem with his departure, we will release him. That is how we can give platform to other talented players from Tamil Nadu," Rohit said.

