The confusion over the future of India's domestic football structure looks set to continue as a meeting between top All India Football Federation (AIFF) officials and representatives of I-League clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal on Saturday ended without any decision of consequence. While an AIFF release said "the revised roadmap of India football has not yet been finalised", officials of the two clubs told ESPN that the sticking point was the I-League being the qualifier for the Asian club tournaments.
The AIFF release said that its president Praful Patel -- who was present, along with general secretary Kushal Das -- told the clubs that stakeholders, including the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), would be consulted before a final decision is taken. The meeting, in Mumbai, had been called by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal to discuss the fate of the two Kolkata clubs in case of a restructuring of the domestic structure, something that the AIFF and its commercial partners IMG-Reliance (IMG-R) have reportedly been keen on doing from the 2017-18 season itself.
One of the club officials who attended the meeting said that the AIFF spoke of running the Indian Super League (ISL) and I-League as parallel leagues. Debasish Dutta, finance secretary of Mohun Bagan, told ESPN, "They have said that the I-League should be the official league of the country. We argued further that if that is the case, then the winner of the I-League should represent India at the AFC Champions League. To this, they could give us no assurances."
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Asked if either of the clubs discussed the possibility of playing in an expanded version of the ISL, as had been reported in various quarters as one of the restructuring possibilities, one attendee said, "We are already playing the I-League, and wish to continue doing so. We don't care about the name of the league, as long as that is the one that is used as the qualification to send a team to club competition. We have not been relegated, and we have fulfilled all of AFC's licensing criteria; in that case, why must we settle for anything other than the top division?"
There had also been some reports in Kolkata media of a statement attributed to Utpal Ganguli, the secretary of the Indian Football Association (IFA) -- the governing body for football in West Bengal, which East Bengal and Mohun Bagan come under -- saying that he would be open to the option of forming a breakaway league with the Kolkata clubs if their standoff with the AIFF doesn't get resolved.
"All I have said is that I am very keen that this whole matter be resolved amicably through mutual discussions and agreement," said Ganguli. "However, if commercial considerations are placed above football merit, then the IFA is going to do whatever is needed to stand by the clubs from the state so that football here does not suffer, even if that means we have to play among ourselves and outside of the ISL or I-League fold, if required."