'I-League the official league'

NEW DELHI:

Fifa

president

Gianni Infantino

's words seem to have inspired

All India Football Federation

(

AIFF

) general secretary

Kushal Das

. In a change of stance, he too termed the I-League as the official league in the country, on Sunday.

"Currently, the I-League is still the official league in India. I-League winners will continue to go to the AFC Cup and the AFC Champions League," Das told TOI on the sidelines of an event. Asked to clarify the exact status of the Indian Super League (ISL), which, off late, has been promoted as India's premier league by the AIFF, he said, "

ISL

is a short league tournament, as it was last year."

The unhappiness of some of the I-League clubs over the proposal of making ISL the top-division league, and relegating I-League to the second division or League One led to the withdrawal of some of the clubs from the I-League. With Infantino declaring it as the official league in India, the under pressure AIFF seems to have postponed the proposed merger, or as Das called it, 'restructuring the Indian professional club football', plans.

"We were planning to implement this in 2017-18, just after the U-17 football World Cup. However, there are quite a few things that need to be sorted out. Still, we would hope to implement it in 2017-18. As of now, this is just a proposal. Nothing is final," he added.

Das said he understood the unhappiness of some of the I-League teams over the said proposal. "I know, from sporting criteria, there will be issues, where many of the clubs will say that we have been playing for 20-30 years. There would be some unhappiness. But the premier league will require a different level of investment and commitment."

DELHI GETS THE GREEN SIGNAL TOO

Delhi's

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

received the green signal from the 13-member FIFA delegation as one of the venues to host next year's U-17 World Cup. Delhi is now the fourth venue to be ratified for the tournament after Kochi, Navi Mumbai and Goa.

"We are very happy to announce that Delhi has been ratified as a venue for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, 2017," said

Javier Ceppi

, tournament director of the local organizing committee (LOC), in the Capital on Sunday. The 13-member delegation along with the LOC on Sunday made an inspection to ascertain the readiness of Delhi to host matches and training sessions at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017. Following the visit, LOC and FIFA experts expressed their satisfaction with the work which has been put in at the venue.