Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) The All India Football Federation (AIFF) Thursday had a second thought on its initial plan to cut down the number of foreigners and allowed clubs to register four overseas players — but stipulated that only three can play in a match.

The executive committee of the AIFF ratified the decisions of the Actions Group, which had proposed that clubs be allowed to register three overseas and one player from Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which also includes Australia, in all domestic tournaments and the I-League. The 3+1 rule was adopted by the AFC a couple of years ago for all club tournaments in the continent.

I-League chief executive Sunando Dhar told IANS that the decision was taken as the AIFF has restricted the participation of all domestic players to 40 matches in a season.

“We have restricted the participation of all domestic players to 40 matches per season and reducing the number of foreigners would have been harsh for the clubs,” said Dhar.

The AIFF also decided that I-League players, other than overseas players, cannot play more than 40 domestic club matches for this season. The domestic tournaments include I-League, Federation Cup, Durand Cup, IFA Shield, local leagues and other AIFF-approved tournaments but does not include International Club tournaments.

“Any I-League player who plays for less than 45 minutes in any I-League match during the season shall be eligible to play the local league match,” the AIFF said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the AIFF is in talks with Dutch firm Orange Sports Forum (ORS) and France’s JMG Academy for providing technical expertise. The two firms made presentations Wednesday.

AIFF secretary general Kushal Das has held talks with ORS a couple of months back during his trip to Amsterdam. Renowned Dutch coach Guus Hiddink is also part of ORS. JMG academy was established by French footballer Jean Marc Guillou in 2002 and they have nine academies across the world.