World football’s governing body FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officials will visit the city on September 13 and 14 to meet the state association and East Bengal and Mohun Bagan officials to discuss the way forward as to how there can be one league in the country from 2018.
“FIFA officials will hold meetings with the two clubs during their visit. They will also hold a meeting with the IFA (Indian Football Association, the parent body of the sport in West Bengal). They are to submit a plan for having one league by November,” a source close to the development told IANS on Sunday.
A two-member team comprising of Nic Coward, a consultant to FIFA, and Alex Phillips, Head of AFC-UEFA Affairs, is expected to meet the stakeholders of Indian football this month.
Besides Kolkata, they would also meet all clubs from the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League second division with the delegates expected to travel to Delhi, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Guwahati and back to the national capital.
A few months back, a meeting in Kuala Lumpur was held discussing the way forward for Indian football which this season will witness the ISL and the I-League running simultaneously.
The plan is to have one long league from 2018 since this year there is the FIFA U-17 World Cup starting from October 6. The ISL and I-League will commence from November.
