PANAJI: The All India Football Federation is waiting for recommendations from the Asian Football Confederation to solve the complicated issue of slots for Indian clubs in continental competitions. India has two slots for Asian club competitions.

While the I-League champions, until now, were allotted a place in the AFC Champions League play-off, the winners of Cup competitions - Indian Super League (ISL) last season - had to settle for a place in the AFC Cup , Asian football's second tier club competition.

The AIFF executive committee has now given the go ahead for ISL to be classified as the top league - as per the 2010 Master Rights Agreement - and the winners will qualify for the AFC Champions League play-off. But while the AFC has no problem with the AIFF's decision to restructure national competitions for the 2019-20 season, its request for an AFC Cup slot for I-League champions is proving tricky.

For the last two days, AFC general secretary Windsor John has held meetings with AIFF president Praful Patel and general secretary Kushal Das in Mumbai. According to those in the know, all issues have been discussed threadbare and a solution is expected early next month.

"Dato Windsor had come to meet Patel for various reasons and Indian football was also discussed. They are reviewing (India's continental slots) and in a few days, hopefully, they will come up with their recommendations.

"The AIFF executive committee has given ISL the top slot and normally AFC goes by what the member association recommends. What we are trying to figure out is the second slot (for I-League)," said Das.

The AIFF wants the second slot for I-League champions, but according to guidelines for AFC Club Competitions 2017-2020 (Article 12.1), while the first slot is allotted to "winner of the national top division league," the second is reserved for "winner of the national knock-out cup." If the Member Association (MA) does not have a national knock-out cup (Article 12.3), the "winner of the national top division league and runner-up of the national top division league" gets the two spots.

The Federation Cup was previously India's cup competition but that has since been discontinued and replaced with the Super Cup. The AIFF can still classify the Super Cup as knockout competition, although that is sure to invite huge backlash from I-League clubs who will be left with nothing.

