NEW DELHI: A day before the First Instance Body is scheduled to meet at Football House I-League CEO Sunando Dhar stayed optimistic that the I-League clubs will fare better this time around than last year.
“It’s heartening to see that all the clubs have really put in a lot of effort into this and hopefully we will get better results in comparison to last year,” Dhar told the-aiff.com on Tuesday.
Licensing is an annual process where all clubs eligible to compete in the I-League based on sporting merit need to have a license under the AIFF’s Indian Club Licensing system.
“The Asian Football Confederation has also gone out of its way to appreciate our endeavour to make the I-League Clubs more professional unit through the Indian Club Licensing,” he added.
Apart from Pune FC who fulfilled the licensing criteria in the first year, all the other clubs were given a one-year exemption to comply for the just-concluded season. Failing to do so would mean a no show in the country’s top tier competition from next season onwards.
The call will be taken on the basis of the documents provided by all the parties concerned and the inspections that were conducted by the AIFF Inspection Team in April/May.
The 14 Clubs in question are Bengaluru FC, Dempo SC, Pune FC, Salgaocar SC, Churchill Brothers, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Sporting Clube de Goa, United SC, Mumbai FC, Rangdajied United FC, Shillong Lajong FC, Royal Wahingdoh and Mohammedan Sporting. (Agencies)
