All India Football Federation, the authority responsible for the development of football in the country, has called its the meeting of its Executive Committee on July 3 to end the conundrum of ISL-I-League parallel existence.
It is expected that ISL will be declared as India's top league with I-League being renamed as League One.
As per AIFF's General Secretary, Kushal Das, their agreement with IMG-Relaince (reconstituted as Football Sports Development Limited) was to allow FSDL to restructure India's domestic structure.
Indian Super League, which was launched in 2014 amid much fan fare was initially dubbed just as a tournament by AIFF President, Praful Patel but was awarded the status of a Cup competition in 2017 and allotted its Champion a slot in AFC Cup.
With ISL becoming the Top League, it will get the AFC Champions League slot with AFC Cup slot going to the winner of Super Cup.
I-League will be re-branded as League One with no promotion to ISL.
Lack of popularity and fan-interest has been touted as the reason for making ISL as the top division, but it must be noted that I-League clubs like NEROCA FC, Real Kashmir FC, Gokulam Kerala FC and Kolkata giants, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have seen their attendance figures overtaking ISL franchises like FC Pune City, Mumbai City FC, Delhi Dynamos and NorthEast United FC.
I-League had an average attendance of almost 10000 last season hat too with 2 PM kick offs and no promotion by the League runners.
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