AIFF Executive Committee to Decide on Corporate Bidders Seeking Direct Entry Into I-League on July 3

The All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) executive committee will take a decision on the five corporate bidders seeking direct entry into the I-League in its meeting on July 3.

The AIFF executive committee will meet a day before the Annual General Meeting of the national federation at the sidelines of the ongoing SAFF Championships. The AIFF AGM is being held on July 4, when the final of the regional tournament is scheduled.

The League Committee of the AIFF met on Friday via video conference to discuss the five corporate bids from YMS Finance Pvt Ltd (Varanasi, UP), Namdhari Seeds Pvt Ltd (Bhaini Sahib Village, Punjab), Nimida United Sports Development Pvt Ltd (Bengaluru), Concatenate Advest Advisory Pvt Ltd (Delhi) and Bunkerhill Pvt Ltd (Ambala, Haryana).

The meeting, chaired by Lalnghinglova Hmar and attended by AIFF Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran, reviewed the bid documents of all five entities but thought it prudent to leave the final decision on the inclusion of the clubs to the Executive Committee.

The League Committee, though, found all the bids to have the requisite financial capabilities to operate in the I-League, the AIFF said in a statement.

The five bids were earlier examined and evaluated by an independent financial expert.

”It is extremely encouraging to see that so many parties are interested in investing their money in Indian Football. They even plan to have their own infrastructure like stadiums, which is not an easy task in India,” Prabhakaran said.

”It shows that they have the resources and the bandwidth. The new clubs getting into the top league shows that there is interest and positivity and that money is going into football.” League Committee Chairman Hmar said, ”The future of Indian Football rests on what is decided in the next few days, and we need to see which clubs are welcomed into the system.

”All the bidders have shown that they have the bandwidth and finances to run and operate clubs at the Hero I-League level. This is an achievement for the AIFF to receive so many bids. They will only help to add more value to Indian Football.” The July 4 AGM is the first such meeting of the current AIFF dispensation, which took charge of the federation in September last.