Even as the I-League Committee meets in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the number of foreigners in each squad along with other demands of the participating teams, the clubs themselves are at logger-heads with five of them writing to the All India Football Federation against the proposal to increase the overseas recruits for the upcoming season.
The proposal to increase the number of foreigners in the squad from four to eight with a maximum of five allowed to be on the field at any given time came primarily from Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal during the June 29 meeting between the top clubs and AIFF.
And despite stiff opposition, the two Kolkata clubs insist that the proposed changes are required to keep the league competitive since it will be played simultaneously with the cash-rich Indian Super League.
“If you ask me personally, I don’t want it. We all want to play with Indian players,” East Bengal’s assistant secretary Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta told The Field on Wednesday. “But both the ISL and the I-League are supposed to take place simultaneously. Most of the best Indian players are going into the draft. So how will the I-League compete? We need to ensure that we stay competitive and hence we’ve made this demand.”
When asked why other Indian clubs haven’t come behind their proposal, Dasgupta explained, “Other clubs are opposing because they feel foreigners are more expensive. Obviously, everyone wants to play with Indian players.
“But they must realise that in this market, we all have to stay competitive,” he added.
Mohun Bagan’s financial secretary Debasish Dutta echoed a similar view: “These other clubs are smaller entities...they have smaller budgets so they are concerned about themselves. But East Bengal and us have been here for more than a century and we will stay in the future as well. We are concerned about Indian football.”
However, Dutta also insisted that they were looking to make a point about the injustice meted out to I-League clubs and the move should not be looked as an attempt to show the Indian players in bad light.
“Of course, it is an outrageous demand. Yes, it is an outrageous demand. But we still have gone and intentionally made it,” said Dutta. “But, where were all the protests when ISL clubs were allowed to have ten foreigners in their squad? Did anyone bother when they were destroying Indian football? And now when we are making the same demand, everyone is so angry?”
Dutta added, “Lower the number of foreigners in the squad in the ISL and then we have no issues if the same happens in the I-League. We will keep on fighting this battle.”