The All India Football Federation’s Technical Committee on Friday recommended the Indian Super League and the I-League to follow the guidelines of the Asian Football Confederation and stick to the the 3+1 foreigner’s rule from the 2021-’22 season.
The members of the AIFF Technical Committee, chaired by Shyam Thapa, discussed the idea through video-conferencing on Friday afternoon.
The AFC rule suggests that a maximum of four foreign players, including one from an AFC member nation can be part of the playing eleven.
Until the 2019-’20 season, Indian clubs were allowed to register a maximum of five foreign players in the line-up while a maximum of seven overseas players could be allowed in the squad.
The clubs could register a maximum of seven and a minimum of six non-Indian players if their annual salaries didn’t exceed the salary cap.
Earlier, Indian national team coach Igor Stimac had also backed AIFF to implement AFC’s 3+1 foreign player policy, who said the rule would help local players receive more game time.
“My suggestion for the top tier [league] in the country is to follow AFC rule of 3+1, that’s the basic rule for the number of foreign players. It’s not strange that that most successful Asian countries are following that rule and that is why they are successful,” Stimac said at a media briefing.
“That is why they have an option for the national team to have strikers, offensive midfielders and the centre-backs,” he added.
The Technical Committee also felt that it isn’t appropriate to discuss the PIO/OCI rule allowing players of Indian origin to represent India but said it will wait for clarity from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports before the topic can be discussed at a later stage.