Praful Patel: I-League is the official league in the country

In a highly important meeting with East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in Mumbai yesterday, Xtratime reported Patel as saying,  “I-League is the official league in the country. ISL will be a tournament."

Patel also revealed that both the tournaments will be a seven-month affair from now on. But couldn’t conjure up a satisfactory response when Bagan official Debashish Dutta asked him about the criteria to play the AFC Champions League. “When I enquired of Mr. Patel if the I-League champions would get the opportunity to play in the ACL, as he declared the competition to be the official league in India, he failed to give a satisfactory answer of my question,” Datta said.

And East Bengal official Dr. Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta confirmed the news saying,  “The AIFF President told us in the meeting that the I-League will remain the official league in the country and the ISL will just be a tournament. He will tell us about the ACL qualification criteria after the AFC Congress. Though right at the start we made it very clear that we will no way play outside of Kolkata in any circumstances.”

The meeting was also attended by  AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, and Senior Vice-President Subrata Dutta.