The All India Football Federation has called for a meeting on April 30 with the presidents and secretaries of all state associations. The AIFF's technical director Isac Doru is scheduled to make a presentation “regarding non-relegation” in the meeting, which will also have the federation president Praful Patel in attendance.
According to the AIFF, Doru's presentation will explore the idea of doing away with the relegation from the I-League “only” for the current season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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However, according to a few sources, the federation might also need to look at moving away from its earlier agreed roadmap -- jointly envisaged by the federation, I-League, ISL clubs and the Asian Football Confederation -- to introduce relegation-promotion from the 2024-25 season.
The AIFF general secretary Kushal Das, in September 2020, had stated: “From 2024-25 there will be promotion, relegation where the bottom-placed team (of the ISL) will be relegated to the second tier and the I-League winner will be promoted to ISL.”
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The roadmap had also announced a direct entry to the ISL for the I-League winners of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
“I think they (the league and club owners) are not happy with the proposal (relegation), so they might be pulling the AIFF to take a decision that there will not be a relegation from the ISL,” a football official said. “Nobody will want to buy a team if there is a danger of the club being relegated. If someone buys a club for Rs 200 crore and if there is a risk of relegation in the same year, who will pay such a huge amount.”
(Copy has been updated following clarification/ statement from AIFF's side)
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