AIFF Holds Pre-bid Meet With 25 Institutional League Teams to Outline Competition Plans

The All-India Football Federation conducted a pre-bid meeting with its Institutional League teams on Thursday to present the competition’s plan, besides understanding their views.

The session was headed by Satyanarayan M, AIFF’s Deputy Secretary General. The league’s objective would be to merge institutional football along the lines of the Indian football structure, adding value to the competitive national structure.

It would help in providing employment opportunities to aspiring young Indian footballers, besides allowing the institutional sides to compete alongside the top Indian clubs.

The 25 teams that attended the conference were Aeronautical Development Establishment (Bengaluru), Air India (Mumbai), ASC Centre South (Bengaluru), Bank of Baroda (Vadodara), BSF North Bengal (Siliguri), BSF Punjab, Chennai Customs, CRPF (Punjab), CSIR – National Institute of Oceanography (Goa), Dravstream Tech Pvt Ltd (Mumbai), Employee State Insurance Corporation (Chennai), Employee State Insurance Corporation (New Delhi), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (Bengaluru), Indian Navy (Kochi), Indian Railways (New Delhi), IndiaPost Karnataka (Bengaluru), JCT (Punjab), Karnataka Police (Bengaluru), Oil India Ltd – Assam Field HQ (Duliajan), PDC Services (Alchemy Football) (Bengaluru), PFA Organization (Haryana), Punjab Police, Reserve Bank of India (Mumbai), Reserve Bank of India (Bengaluru) and Services Sports Control Board (New Delhi).

The Request for Proposal document for the same is likely to be released in early September 2023, while the eligible sides are expected to be announced by mid-October 2023, with the league tentatively scheduled to start in January 2024.

The league could also have multiple divisions depending on the number of teams participating.

Meanwhile, the call on the event’s format will be taken after consultation with the participating sides.

In a media statement, AIFF said, ”The participation is open to organisations including, but not limited to, the following – Private Corporations, Ministerial Units, Public Sector Units, Police/Defence/Paramilitary Forces (Unit-Level), State Departments and Railways (Division-level).” ”The bids will be subject to a two-step evaluation process – Technical Evaluation (to assess the preparedness of the applicant to participate in the competition) and Legacy Evaluation (to determine the historical contribution of the applicant to Indian football). Technical credits will be used to determine the applicant’s seeding for the competition, while Legacy credits will be used to determine the concession that will be awarded to the applicant on the base participation fee.” The AIFF has set a base participation fee for the Institutional League at Rs 10,00,000 annually.

The applicants will qualify for a benefit of up to Rs 5,00,000 on the base participation fee which would depend on their legacy evaluation score.

In the meantime, the winners and runners-up of this Institutional League would be granted direct entry into the 2024 Federation Cup, whereas the promotion-relegation system will come into play in case of multiple divisions.