The ISL tangle is on the path to resolution. This can be claimed after Friday's meeting between AIFF and the club consortium on December 26. In the meeting, the federation proposed running the ISL for 20 years. Three officials from the federation made this proposal to two officials from the club consortium. Now the club consortium will examine the proposal and announce its final decision on December 29. If this happens, the ISL will be modelled on the English Premier League.
AIFF has informed in their plan that they will run the ISL. The league will run from June 1 to May 31 of the following year. A central operational budget will be created for this, where all ISL shareholders will contribute. From that budget, the league operations, prize money, and licensing costs will be covered.
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Each club will have to pay one crore rupees per season for participation. That means the federation will directly receive 14 crore rupees from 14 clubs. This money will have to be paid at the beginning of the season. Apart from this, there are other expenses. This one crore rupees will later be returned to the clubs from the league's annual revenue. That means if the ISL earns profit at the end of the season, that portion of earnings will be distributed among ISL shareholders, which includes AIFF, clubs, and partners. From the profits, the federation will keep 10 per cent, commercial partners will get 30 per cent, and 50 per cent will be shared among the clubs. The remaining 10 per cent will be kept as a fixed revenue share.
A legal board will be created to ensure compliance with league rules and laws. However, the final decision-making power will remain with AIFF.
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The federation's proposal states there will be no relegation in the ISL. However, relegation will be introduced later. According to this proposal, the ISL will run for 20 years. When relegation is introduced, if any club falls under relegation and they have played in the ISL for a long time, they will receive a fixed portion of revenue every year. However, they will have to pay one crore rupees for membership.
Clubs that have been playing in the ISL for eight or more years will get an additional 1 per cent from profits. Clubs that have played for three to eight years will be given 0.5 per cent of profits. Clubs that have played for less time will get 0.25 per cent.
If the clubs accept the federation's proposal, the ISL could start from February 5. At that time, there will be 119 matches in the ISL.
