The Indian Super League’s (ISL) newest participants would have been announced on Friday however, the plan has been shelved for now.
This was after the high profile meeting in Delhi on Wednesday when Asian Football Confederation (AFC) General Secretary Dato Windsor met the All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Praful Patel and General Secretary Kushal Das.
It was suggested by Windsor that the bids submitted by interested parties to be a part of the ISL be opened only after the meeting in Kuala Lumpur on June 7 where stakeholders such as I-League, ISL clubs, Football Players Association of India (FPAI), Sports Ministry and others will be present.
“As per the ITB, the announcements were to be made on May 26 but after the meeting in Delhi, it has been postponed by a couple of weeks,” informed an AIFF official.
Close to two weeks back, the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) had invited bids from interested parties to pick the Invitation to Bid (ITB) document and submit it on the 25th of this month.
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The bids were invited from 10 cities, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Siliguri and Thiruvananthapuram with the organizers stating that they would induct only one to three teams.
Bengaluru FC and Tata Group have submitted the bid documents on Thursday as they look own an ISL franchise from the cities of Bangalore and Jamshedpur (Tata Nagar).
The ISL is all set to get a shot in the arm with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) all set to allow the winners of the said competition to ply their trade in the AFC Cup qualifying play-offs.