All India Football Federation president Praful Patel is likely to meet the representatives of the agitated I-League clubs on July 2 or 3 with the sports governing body shifting it’s proposed Executive Committee meeting to July 9, Times of India reported on Saturday.
“The AIFF president will meet I-League clubs either on July 2 or July 3,” AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said on Friday.
The I-League clubs have been at loggerheads for the past few months with AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited, which runs the Indian Super League, over the future of the league with the former boycotting the Super Cup in March after their request for a meeting with Patel was not heeded.
Patel, who was busy with Fifa Council elections, was then supposed to meet the club’s representatives on April 14 but that meeting was also postponed due to his commitments with the general election. AIFF then slapped the clubs with a hefty fine for boycotting the Super Cup.
Things came to a head last week when reports of AIFF calling a EC meeting on July 3 to clear the way for ISL to become the top league in the country started doing the rounds. I-League clubs responded by threatening to move court against any such decision.
AIFF then claimed that Patel was always willing to meet the club representatives but they only had not followed up with the association after the Super Cup.
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Though there have been no clarity yet on the possible road map AIFF will opt for in the July 9 meeting, AIFF has finally taken a step towards at least listening to the grievances of the I-League clubs.