The confusion over the international transfers of the icon players in the first Premier League Soccer (PLS) was resolved at an emergency meeting of the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) in New Delhi on Monday.
The Indian Football Association (IFA), the game’s apex unit in West Bengal, has now been given the green light to organise the tournament in association with event management company Celebrity Management Group (CMG).
AIFF president Praful Patel chaired the emergency meeting and said: "There was never an issue related to the Premier League Soccer. We have no problem with the tournament, it is a good initiative and we want other states also to encourage the league.
"The foreign players are under the Fifa and if there is a Fifa regulation they have to follow it. It is not an AIFF stipulation. AIFF just wants to ensure good governance otherwise we would be troubled internationally. We just helped the tournament to follow the right path."
The AIFF had suspended the Transfer Matching System (TMS) passwords, a pre-requisite to register professional foreign footballers, of the six PLS franchises as the teams were not affiliated to the IFA.
{{/usCountry}}The AIFF had suspended the Transfer Matching System (TMS) passwords, a pre-requisite to register professional foreign footballers, of the six PLS franchises as the teams were not affiliated to the IFA.
{{/usCountry}}But AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said: Fifa had raised the issue over the registration of the clubs and thus the federation just wrote to the IFA regarding the same. And after the necessary clarifications, the suspension was revoked."
AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta said: "We received an e-mail from (IFA general secretary) Utpal Ganguli and he has assured us that the IFA will abide by all the terms of AIFF. He also said following the Fifa rules all the clubs have been registered under the respective district sports associations."
Ganguli has already spoken to the franchisees and they have assured 50 % of the payment in advance.