All India Football Federation deny four I-League clubs new licence

The Indian sports law update for this week centers around the All India Football Federation (AIFF)¹ (India’s governing body for football) deciding not to grant four teams licenses to participate in the upcoming I-League season, which starts in December 2014.²

Before the 2014- 2015 season of the I-League, the AIFF, with the support of IMG Reliance³and Star India⁴ , will also introduce the Indian Super League (ISL)⁵ from September to November 2014.

AIFF denies licenses for four teams, barring them from the upcoming I-League

After meeting at the Football House in Delhi last week, the AIFF’s club licensing committee, the First Instance Body, decided to “bar” four clubs from competing in the 2014-2015 I-League⁶: Churchill Brothers⁷ , United Sports Club⁸ , Rangdajied United FC⁹ , and Mohammedan Sporting¹⁰ . The clubs were barred¹¹ due to their failure to meet the AIFF’s Indian Club Licensing Regulations (“Licensing Regulations”)¹², which came into effect from the 2013 season. 

Licensing requires that those clubs participating in or seeking to participate in the national club competitions, including the I-League, and all Asian Football Confederation (AFC) competitions must achieve certain standards.  The Licensing Regulations set out 42 mandatory requirements to be fulfilled by teams if they wish to obtain a license.¹³ The requirements include “legal, administration, sporting, infrastructure and finance” criteria that all clubs are required to meet.¹⁴ The license is required to compete under “the AIFF’s Indian Club Licensing System”¹⁵, and is reviewed annually based on a team’s overall performance.

Churchill Brothers and United SC had “financial problems last season, failing to pay their players on time,” and did not provide completed audit statements, which constitutes a breach of paragraphs F.01 A and F.03 under section 10.3.1 of the Licensing Regulations. The third team, Randajied United, submitted its papers for licensing regulations three days late, which is a breach of Step 3 of Section 5.3 of the Licensing Regulations. Mohammedan Sporting, who were already barred for the 2013-2014 season and who were planning to rejoin the Second Division I-League, will now not be allowed to compete at all, even in the Second Division.¹⁶