Happy That Broadly Acceptable Consensus Has Been Established: Patel on Indian Football

Mumbai, Nov 2 (PTI) All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel on Saturday expressed happiness that a "broadly acceptable consensus" has been reached on Indian football's roadmap.

"I am happy that a sustainable, comprehensive and broadly acceptable consensus roadmap has now been established which will do Indian football a lot of good in the future. Broadly a good solution has been found for club football in India," Patel told reporters here.

He was speaking after the official Emblem of the FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup was launched in the presence of Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.

"I feel genuinely happy that a broad consensus has been built on a ticklish issue which has been nagging the entire football fraternity. What will happen to ISL, what will happen to I league, what will happen to future of clubs, these kind of very important questions were always keeping us engaged," added Patel.

The Indian Super League will replace the I-League as the top-tier competition in the country after the stakeholders agreed to a proposal of the Asian Football Confederation, ending the long-drawn and contentious restructuring process.

As per the roadmap, ISL will be the top league in the country from this season itself, while the I-League will continue as the second tier league.

Patel said there were issues between ISL and I-League clubs, which needed to be resolved.

"There was a meeting and workshop held in Kuala Lumpur under the aegis of AFC where I-League and ISL clubs were invited. AIFF was represented there and also we had FSDL -- our commercial partners."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)