A day after TOI revealed that some of the players are struggling to find employment, AIFF general secretary Ku... Read More

NEW DELHI: No news is good news. Well at least for some of the Indian football players. A day after TOI revealed that some of the players are without clubs and are struggling to find employment, AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said this phenomenon is nothing new and is common all over the world.

"It is impossible for the federation to look into all these aspects. It is the same everywhere in the world. There are players who get clubs and there are who can't. It is natural thing. We are not in a position to offer them jobs. They have to look for alternatives," Kushal Das told TOI on Wednesday. The I-League is set to start in January 2016 while ISL, which begins on October 3, can only accommodate a little above 100 players. Each ISL team needs to have a minimum of 13 domestic players in their squad.

Asked if they have any plans to curb this problem, he said, "We have many tournaments. We have the I-League, the ISL, second division tournaments. So if they are good enough to get into any of the clubs and play those tournaments, it's fine."

In reality though, the list of tournaments that have been discontinued in the last five years, is pretty long. The spike in jobless footballers has occurred only after the inception of the Indian Super League .

Only 10 players were auctioned off during the ISL auctions in July, whereas over 70 players remained unsold in the draft that followed the auction. And the problem of joblessness cropped only after ISL came into existence.

Das also spoke on the on-going debate of merging the I-League with the ISL.

"There is a consensus among everyone that there should be one league and it should be a long one. How we can do that is something that we need to work on. It's not an easy solution. We are certainly looking at that solution," he said.

It seems that the AIFF is first trying to create a problem and then seeking a consensus to solve it. Das said Indian football is facing a problem of 'plenty' and fans could see around 15-16 teams playing each other in one league. According to Das, there is no shortage of clubs and the players have ample opportunity to prove their mettle.

"There are 11 I-League Clubs and 8 ISL clubs. Essentially, that's 19 teams playing in the top two leagues of the country. That's a problem, but a good one. The number of teams is much more. The investment has gone up significantly. If it was 'x' in the past, now it is '4x'. All this is a positive sign. We could end up having a league with 15-16 teams." And still players can't find clubs.

SAFF Cup: Pakistan to visit India in December

New Delhi: While a huge question mark looms over the fate of the India-Pakistan cricket series in December and that of the participation of the Pakistani players in the Hockey India League, AIFF general secretary Kushal Das expressed confidence of hosting Pakistan in the SAFF Cup 2015 later this year.

"We had Pakistan before in 2011 and played a couple of friendlies in Bangalore last year. Necessary permission has to be taken from the government but I don't see any problem," Das said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the official draw which was held here in the capital. Six-time winners India has been clubbed with Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Group A. Defending champions Afghanistan were clubbed with Maldives, Bhutan and Bangladesh in Group B. The ninth edition of SAFF Cup will take place in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala from December 23 to January 3, 2016.

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