By Mark Baber
November 25 – Following the All India Football Federation (AIFF) organised I-League meeting in Delhi on Monday, it was announced that the start of the I-League will be on January 17 and that a new AIFF U-15 tournament for I-League clubs will be set up. However, there was no mention of the on-going High Court dispute over the “relegation” of the Churchill Brothers – the reason that no fixtures, or the names of the teams participating in the coming season’s competition, can be announced.
Churchill Brothers, whose CEO Valanka Alemao is possibly the only woman in charge of a South Asian club, are one of the most successful Indian clubs, having played in every edition of the National Football League – now known as the I-League – except for one year when they were relegated.
Alemao has criticised the setting up of the Indian Super League (ISL) by the AIFF and IMG-Reliance (to whom the AIFF has outsourced organisation of the new league) as illegal and against the FIFA statutes which forbid the setting up of rival leagues in the same country as well as the auctioning of players. Subsequently Churchill Brothers were “relegated” from the I-League due to purported failures to meet Club Licensing Criteria.
In response, Churchill Brothers, backed by the Goa Football Association, have taken the matter to the Delhi High Court, with the AIFF having been told by the judge to be “more inclusive for the welfare of sport in the country,” and ordered not to finalise the fixtures until a verdict is pronounced.
The AIFF have told the High Court that restoring Churchill Brothers to the I-League would mean removing one of the clubs expecting to play. This is hardly a compelling argument given that the number of teams in the league has been reduced for this season and that ‘Bharat FC’, a brand new team set up to promote an engineering and arms company, has been parachuted directly into the top division.
FIFA have been happy to allow the AIFF/IMG/Reliance ISL experiment to run its course, presumably in the hope it will achieve an uptake in interest in football in one of the world’s most populous nations. However, (unlike in Nigeria for instance) the organisation has avoided making threats to suspend the country over the ongoing civil court action; perhaps aware that the AIFF may have gone a step too far in targeting one of India’s most prestigious clubs.
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