The news that has been doing rounds for the past few days has turned true as Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar FC have announced their withdrawal from next year's I-League in a joint statement released by both the clubs. The reason for the withdrawal is cited as the proposed League Structure that if implemented would see ISL leap frogging I-League as India's top division and the latter reduced to 2nd Division with no promotion to the top tier.
The clubs stated that the proposal put forward by AIFF and their marketing partners, FSDL was highly biased against I-League and alleged that their suggestions on the proposed structure did not get any response from AIFF or FSDL even after a month.
The Joint Statement termed deal that AIFF made with IMG-Reliance in 2010, which gave the rights of Indian football for 700 Crores, as unfair and was done without consulting all the stakeholders. They also accused AIFF of not settling their dues from as far as 2008.
It must be noted that both these clubs were the first to voice thier opinions against the proposed League structure and had been discussing thier next course of action for the past 1 month.
Both the clubs, assured that their withdrawal from I-League doesn't mean end of their footballing activities and their efforts towards youth development will continue with ever increasing vigour.
With the latest pull out of clubs from I-League, the 2016/17 edition would be reduced to a 7 team affair, which would jeopardize India's commitments in AFC's Club competitions. Even Last year, after three clubs, namely Pune FC, Bharat FC and Royal Wahingdoh, pulled out, AIFF had to revive Federation Cup to meet minimum number of matches to be played by clubs in order to be eligible for AFC Competitions.
