The All India Football Federation (AIFF) Club Licensing Appeals Body have yesterday (June 3) turned down appeals of the four Clubs which had last week contested the decision of the Committee’s First Instance Body.
The four Clubs – Churchill Brothers, United SC, Rangdajied United and Mohammedan Sporting – made their presentations before the Appeals Committee, chaired by N.K. Sud, Retired Justice Punjab and Haryana High Court. Sanjeev Paul, Managing Director of TATA Metaliks, and Neel Ratan, Executive Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited were also present at the meeting.
The four clubs, however, will be permitted to play in the second division I-League if they meet the required criteria. Interestingly, all the four clubs finished at the bottom four in the 13-team I-League (2013-14) which ended last month, with Mohammedan Sporting finishing last and Churchill 11th.
The Committee heard the appeals of the four Clubs in detail and found the Clubs to be heavily lacking on various ‘A-criteria in categories pertaining to Sporting, Personnel & Administrative, Financial, Legal and Infrastructure’. Based on the previous evidence provided during the last Hearing(May 21), the Committee upheld the First Instance Body’s decision to not issue an AFC and National License to the four Clubs for the upcoming I-League 2014-15 season.
Out of the ten remaining clubs, seven Clubs – Bengaluru FC, Dempo SC, Pune FC, Salgaocar SC, East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Sporting Clube de Goa – have been granted both the National and the AFC License. Mumbai FC and Shillong Lajong FC were given only the National License, as both the Clubs did not have the required AFC A Class Stadium, but they fully obeyed the infrastructure requirement for the National license.
