AIFF give Air India,ONGC a lifeline

The criteria the clubs failed to meet was for the clubs to be separate commercial entities

While admitting that institutional clubs didn’t comply with Asian Football Confederation (AFC) club norms,the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday decided that Indian Arrows,HAL,ONGC and Air India would take part in the I League for the rest of this season.

Sitting alongside Mohammad bin Hammam,president of the AFC,at a press conference in New Delhi,Praful Patel,the president of the AIFF said the clubs had been given the extra time to comply with the the AFC’s club licensing criteria.

The criteria the clubs failed to meet was for the clubs to be separate commercial entities. This was not the case in the case of Air India,HAL and ONGC,which were part of the parent Public Sector Units or the Indian Arrows,which is owned and managed by the AIFF. Arrows are currently 9th in the 14-team I League,while HAL,Air India and ONGC are ranked 10th ,13th and last on the table.

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The teams like ONGC,Air India,HAL are all public sector enterprises. Also they have fulfilled all the other criterias for being eligible to play in professional league. Since the licensing requires the clubs to be commercial entities and the owners need to be identified,there are some legal and legislative hurdles for these government teams. Therefore these four clubs have been granted extension,” Patel said.

The clubs had earlier been given a December 31,2010 deadline to fulfill the criteria and submit all the required documents to AFC. Praful Patel made it clear that the extension provided would be the final one. “The FIFA and AFC guidelines are supreme. So if they don’t adhere to the norms then they won’t be able to play in the 2012-13 I-League. You have to understand that if any of these team qualify for the AFC Cup or AFC Champions League,they won’t be able to participate.”